1. 3-Point Party

Valencia defeated Hapoel Tel Aviv 93–82 at home on Thursday night in Round 4 of EuroLeague action, dropping the Reds to 2–2 in the competition. The game was all about Valencia’s 3-point shooting. Although both teams made 12 triples, the hosts set the tone by shooting at a higher percentage and getting more players involved from beyond the arc, with their shooters coming up big whenever it mattered most.

A trio of Valencia players made three 3-pointers apiece, compared to just one for Hapoel although that player put together an extraordinary performance, which we’ll get to shortly. Only one other Valencia player went multiple times from deep. The Spanish side built a big lead early, leaving Hapoel with little choice but to spend the rest of the night chasing the game.

Kameron Taylor knocked down three 3’s to lead Valencia with 17 points. Josep Puerto was instrumental in the third quarter, draining back-to-back triples to give his team a 14-point advantage. Puerto finished with 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc. Dylan Osetkowski also scored 11 points and made three triples, including one that effectively sealed the result. Valencia remained perfect in the EuroLeague at 4–0.

2. Blakeney

Antonio Blakeney was the only player who could go toe-to-toe with Valencia. The sharpshooter entered the game having made just 3/18 from beyond the arc across his first three EuroLeague games of the season, which translates into a brutal 16.6% clip. This time, however, he carried his team on his back with an extraordinary performance, scoring a EuroLeague career-high 30 points on 8/11 shooting from downtown in 29 minutes.

Blakeney brought back memories of his famous takeover against Valencia in the EuroCup semifinals. Unfortunately for him, his heroics weren’t enough this time around.

3. Shorts

Valencia also benefited from an outstanding performance by its star guard, T.J. Shorts, who was effective at both ends of the floor. Shorts scored 15 points and dished out seven assists while also drawing an offensive foul on defense.

4. Micic

After hitting some huge 3-pointers despite an otherwise difficult performance in the road win over Red Star Belgrade and following that up with 22 points in the victory over Real Madrid, Vasilije Micic was unable to find consistency.

Four points on another inefficient shooting night, 1/5 from three-point range and 1/6 from the field overall along with three assists, two turnovers, a -2 efficiency rating and a -24 plus-minus in 19 minutes simply wasn’t good enough.

5. LeDay

Zach LeDay scored Hapoel’s first six points against Valencia, but the Reds got off to a poor start and Dimitrios Itoudis subsequently left him on the bench for an extended stretch. When LeDay returned to the floor, he struggled to regain his rhythm.

He finished with seven points on 3/9 shooting from the field, five rebounds, four on the offensive glass and a +2 efficiency rating in 17 minutes.

6. Toppin

The power forward, who is in the process of obtaining Israeli citizenship and had missed the previous games through injury, returned to action and impressed in the first half.

Jacob Toppin had already made a strong impression in his EuroLeague debut in the loss to Bayern Munich and although he was less influential after halftime this time around, there were plenty of positives to take from his performance. He finished with five points on 2/2 shooting from two-point range, went 1/1 from the free-throw line, grabbed four rebounds and recorded a 10 efficiency rating and a +1 plus-minus in 15 minutes.

Hapoel’s other contributors included Elijah Bryant, who scored 12 points, grabbed nine rebounds, drew seven fouls and posted a game-high 23 efficiency rating; Tai Odiase with eight points; Dan Oturu, who had six points, eight rebounds and four turnovers; Ish Wainright with six points; and Tomas Satoransky, who scored four points and dished out nine assists. Eugene German and Bruno Caboclo also saw action, with Caboclo going 0-of-3 from beyond the arc.