He boasted averages of 18 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.5 steals, 1.5 blocks across the Blitz.<\/p>\n
“It’s now about getting back here, dominating and putting my best foot forward, while also winning,”\u00a0Travers said in August, as he eyes a return to the NBA. <\/p>\n
“I feel like this is the best opportunity for me and the best spot, to get me back to the NBA.”<\/p>\n
After leaving the club in 2024 to take up a contract with NBA powerhouse Cleveland, the 25-year-old Travers came back to his former side and made a statement.<\/p>\n
On Friday, he posted 23 points and nine boards against Perth before racking up a double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds) on Sunday to help Melbourne beat Illawarra 103-98 at Bendigo’s Red Energy Arena.<\/p>\n
The performances earned him the tournament’s MVP gong while United (2-0) secured the Loggins-Bruton Cup by finishing above cross-town rivals South East Melbourne on the Blitz points system, which awards bonus points for winning quarters.<\/p>\n
“I was really proud of the way our team competed, and coming out … without a couple of our key guys playing and being able to come up with a win was major for us,” Josh Oduro, who collected 22 points and nine rebounds, told AAP.<\/p>\n
“I love how we’re coming together through this pre-season, and I hope it’ll carry us throughout the year.”<\/p>\n
2026 Ray Borner Award voting countLuke Travers (Melbourne): 21 votesParker Jackson-Cartwright (New Zealand): 19 votesJosh Oduro (Melbourne): 18 votesSkylar Mays (South East Melbourne): 15 votesArnas Veli\u010dka (Brisbane): 15 votesMilton Doyle (Illawarra): 15 votesMakuach Maluach (Sydney): 15 votesBryce Cotton (Adelaide): 15 votesJack McVeigh (Cairns): 12 votesTyrell Harrison (Brisbane): 12 votesFlynn Cameron (Adelaide): 12 votes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Travers has claimed the Ray Borner Award as the MVP of the CODE Sports NBL Blitz tournament…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-882018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}