Valančiūnas has been putting up strong performance after strong performance this week against the Miami Heat in the playoffs, and both teammates and opponents have given him much of the credit for the Raptors' successes. “Their [Toronto] most successful strategy was missing shots in Valančiūnas’ direction so that he could either score on tap-ins or find the right guy to pass to in the chaos,” said Patrick Redford at Deadspin.

Valančiūnas' birthday is today, May 6th. He turns 24 years old.