The World of Stats – Branko Lazić getting close to the Top 10 of the All-Time Steals list
Are you interested in the ABA League all-time records? Check out the following article and find out which major stats changes occurred during the last round.
Branko Lazic (Photo: Crvena zvezda mts)
Marko Simonović (Cedevita Olimpija) has played his 228th game in the ABA League and has therefore tied with Davor Kus at the 16th place of the ABA League All-Time Games Played list. At the same time, Novica Veličković (Partizan NIS) has played his 211th game in the ABA League and has moved up to the 19th place on the ABA League All-Time Games Played list leaving Miro Bilan just behind (210 games).
Speaking about Partizan NIS, the black & whites made 31 assists in the derby match of Round 15 against Cedevita Olimpija, which is the season record and the 5th best score of all time in the ABA League. Crvena zvezda mts is the team which made the most number assists in a single game ever in the regional league – 34 assists (back in 2003 in the match against Bosna).
By scoring 17 points last weekend, Jacob Pullen (Mornar) has reached the 1000+ points milestone (1,005 points). He has played 62 games in the ABA League, with the average score of 16.21 points per game. He has the highest average points rating out of all players from the 2019/20 ABA League season.
In the same match in which Jacob Pullen reached the 1000+ points milestone, his teammate from Mornar Damir Markota has caught 5 defensive rebounds and moved up to the 18th place on the ABA League All-Time Defensive Rebounds list with the overall number of 541 defensive rebounds. Markota moved in front of Marino Baždarić (539 def. rebounds), while he needs 11 more defensive rebounds to tie his score with Ante Tomić (552 def. rebounds).
One more interesting thing about Mornar is that this team scored 17 three-pointers in the match against Koper Primorska and therefore tied their season record. Mornar also managed to score 17 three-pointers in Round 2 match against Igokea.
Glenn Cosey (Krka) is one of the last-round heroes as he scored that game-winning 3-pointer in the dying seconds of the match against Budućnost VOLI. Cosey made 5 three-pointers in total in that match, so he now has 52 three-pointers in his season record, which is by far the best score in the league. The 2nd place on that list currently holds Lance Harris (Mornar) with 42 three-pointers made in the 2019/20 ABA League regular season.
One particularly interesting thing about the 2019/20 season stats is the fact that a small forward is at the top of the list for the best defensive rebounder of the season! Edin Atić (Mega Bemax) has so far caught the most number of defensive rebounds in the season (86 def. rebounds), while the 2nd place currently belongs to Domagoj Vuković (Zadar) with 71 def. rebounds.
Branko Lazić (Crvena zvezda mts) made 2 three-pointers in the last-round match to help his team win the game against Mega Bemax. With those 2 three-pointers Lazić now has 201 three-pointers in his ABA League stats and he is only the 26th player to score 200+ three-pointers in the regional competition. Also, Lazić made 2 steals in the same game, therefore improving his career record to 248 steals made in the ABA League and moving up to the 11th place on the ABA League All-Time Steals list. He needs just one more steal to tie his score with Sašo Ožbolt who is currently holding the 10th place on the ABA League All-Time Steals list.
Special mention
On January 13, 2011, Partizan NIS played against Široki in the 16th round of the 2010/11 ABA League regular season. Partizan NIS won that match by 93:43, which is one of the highest-margin wins in the history of the competition. The 43 points made by Široki is the lowest number of points ever scored in a single game in the ABA League.
On the very same day Milan Gurović (Crvena zvezda mts) made 9 three-pointers out of 18 attempts in the away match against Budućnost VOLI. Those 18 attempts is the highest number of 3-point attempts ever made by a single player in a single game. Despite scoring 9 three-pointers in that match Gurović did not break the ABA League All-Time record of 3-pointers made in a single game, as Teemu Rannikko and Josip Sesar each managed to score 10 three-pointers in a single game. Milan Gurović scored 39 points on that day, but Crvena zvezda mts still lost the match by 88:89.
