Mr. Anderson: Unstoppable in February
A bit of a no-brainer, perhaps, but now it’s official: The Euroleague has named Alan Anderson of Maccabi Tel Aviv as player of the month. And why not? Anderson was a statistical monster the type of which hasn’t been seen in at least have a decade in the big league – his first three games in Top 16 play garnered the former Charlotte Bobcat 24, 40 and 35 ranking points – and is perhaps the major contributor to surprising Maccabi’s success this season.
In four games of Top 16 action (the latter of which were in February), the typical 51.6% shooter has been hitting at a torrid 18-of-25, or an even 72%, on two-pointers – and this including his last, 2-of-5 performance at Efes Pilsen. Or, as the official Euroleague story gushes (in very small part):
In the middle of perhaps the most competitive Top 16 ever, in a group tied four ways with two games remaining, one player kept his team alive with a pair of standard-setting performances. Never before in a nearly a decade’s worth of Top 16 games has anyone put together back-to-back performances like Alan Anderson of Maccabi Tel Aviv, who is Euroleague Basketball’s choice as Sportingbet MVP of the Month for February. Anderson started the month by posting an individual index rating of 40 – then the best Top 16 performance in almost five years – to pace Maccabi past dangerous Real Madrid for its first Top 16 victory in Group F. He followed that up, a week later, with another explosive performance that rated 35 on the index scale and helped defeat Efes Pilsen…
Congratulations to Anderson, then, and as for Tel Aviv’s upcoming competition, lotsa luck. This Cindrella story may not be over yet, particularly if Mr. Anderson has anything to do with it.
Leave a Reply