Despite missing main contributor Peyton Siva due to injury, ALBA Berlin pulled an impressive road win in Krasnodar to hand Lokomotiv Kuban its first loss of the season. In the process, Luke Sikma earned MVP honors for Round 5. Sikma had a great all-around night as he netted 18 points with just one missed shot, pulled 9 rebounds, dished 4 assists, had one steal and one block in over 29 minutes for a PIR of 31, the highest this round among winning players. Sikma had career highs in offensive rebound (5) and minutes played (29) in this game. Next in line this round, Awudu Abass of Brescia Leonessa had a PIR of 30 in his team's one-point loss to ratiopharm Ulm. Abass had 18 points and 10 rebounds. The rest of top individual performances for Round 5 are completed by Will Thomas of Valencia Basket (PIR 29), Yakuba Ouattara of AS Monaco (27) and Vanja Marinkovic of Partizan NIS Belgrade (26).
Individual highs: Marinkovic sets new personal mark with 28 points
Marinkovic was also the top scorer this round with his career-high 28 points at Turk Telekom Ankara. Zenit's Sergey Karasev is still the scoring leader after five games with an average of 20.3 points per game. Partizan's Jock Landale also topped the top rebounders list of the round with his 14 boards, but Vladimir Stimac of Turk Telekom still tops the season rankings with his 8.2 per game. With assists season leader Peyton Siva (10.3 apg.) missing due to injury for ALBA Berlin, his teammate Stefan Peno stepped in for him and led all passers this week with his 10 assists. Patrick Miller of ratiopharm Ulm also led everyone in defense this round with his 5 steals, a career best for him, but his teammate Javonte Green is the one leading the season rankings with 3.5 steals per game. Last but not least, Erik Murphy of the Fraport Frankfurt Skyliners was huge under the boards with his career-high 4 blocks against UNICS Kazan. Augusto Lima of Cedevita Zagreb and Robert Upshaw of Arka Gdynia still top the season rankings with 2.0 blocks per game apiece.