UNICS Kazan center Eurelijus Zukauskas is in the middle of a remarkable streak of play in the FIBA Europe League. The 216 cm Lithuanian has missed just 1 shot in his past 3 games and has made a total of 22/23 of his field goal attempts.

The errant shot came in Kazan’s win over BC Alita this week and it is for this performance that Zukauskas wins MVP. He hit a “mere” 9/10 in his 24-point haul to go along with 6 blocked shots in the 63:86 away victory.

		Zukauskas shot 8/8 against CBC Siroki

Zukauskas is, unsurprisingly the most accurate shooter so far in this year’s FIBA Europe League. He has made 34 of his 48 shot attempts for a 70% accuracy rate.

Not only is Zukauskas hitting a lot of shots, Kazan are winning a lot of games. All of them in fact in the FIBA Europe League, where the Russians are the only undefeated team in the competition at 7-0.

They are quite rightly favoured to win the competition, and for Zukauskas, a win would be another achievement to add to his already impressive curriculum vitae.

On the club scene, he has a Saporta Cup (1998) and EuroLeague title (1999), both of which were with Lithuanian side Zalgiris Kaunas. With the Lithuanian national team, the spoils have been even more impressive and include 2 Olympic bronze medals (1996 and 2000) and a European Championship in 2003.

Zukauskas’ contribution to his country’s first European gold medal since 1939 was considerable. He was his usual self on the offensive side of the floor, hitting 66% of all his shots, second among all players. He also finished second in blocked shots at 2.2bpg.

Zukauskas managed to save his best for last during Eurobasket, scoring 12 points, grabbing 7 rebounds and blocking 4 shots in the semi-final against France, and hitting Spain for 18 points (7/8 shooting) and 7 rebounds in the final.

		Zukauskas averaged 2.2 blocks per game during Eurobasket 2003

He was an honourable mention for the All-Tournament team, but kept out at the center position only by Spanish star Pau Gasol.