By Nikos Varlas / varlas@eurohoops.net
There are many things worth noticing during a Euroleague game. Teams, coaches and players are having their own tendencies and quirks that may need a more closer look in order to see them right. So starting with the athletes who are the main protagonists of the game
Here what is worth noticing…
- The agonizing effort of Joey Dorsey to score points for Barcelona. He is not one of the main offensive options of his team, he doesn’t get many touches so he tries to get the ball by himself. His way of scoring is to get the offensive rebound and then put the ball into the basket. That’s why he is the top offensive rebounder in Euroleague until now with 15 rebounds in 4 games. In a related note, he had attempted 16 shots.
- Juan Carlos Navarro will catch up with Kostas Tsartsaris in the second place of the all time list of games played in Euroleague. If he stays healthy until the end of the season, JCN will pass Theodoros Papaloukas (252) as the all time leader.
- Dusko Vujosevic returns to Moscow! In Belgrade he is worshiped like a god and he is synonymous with Partizan, but he last just some months in Russia after signing a contract in the summer of 2010 and left as the coach with the worst results for CSKA in the last 15 years.
- The game of Brose Baskets on the court of Kaunas. Zalgiris has a streak of six wins against the Germans who are trying to break their losing streak of ten road losses in Euroleague.
- Scotty Hopson of Anadolu Efes in the most difficult game of his time in the regular season. The American swingman is an impressive Euroleague rookie so far, being the third best scorer of the league with 17.8 ppg, having also 2.8 rebounds, 69% shooting efficiency on two pointers and 60% on threes! Those are impressive games and his test in Madrid will be more than important.
- On the same category you can add 26 years old Eurobasket champion Alexis Ajinca. The center of Strabourg is having a great season with 20.3 ppg, 58,9% in two pointers, 83,3% in threes, 5,5 rpg, 1.8 asp and 1.3 bpg! He is the top scorer, tied with Fenerbahce/ Ulker’s Bojan Bogdanovic and of course he takes more shots than any other player in the league.
- The number of Ajinca’ shots is the main question about him at this point. You ask why? He is playing in a team which is build around him, he feels happy and everything is working in favor of him. He couldn’t do that if he ended up in a better team, let’s say like Galatasaray, or a top club. He should adapt himself in a situation where he wouldn’t be the top option and that’s the next big question about his career, specially if Strasbourg doesn’t make the Top16.
- Diamantidis’ game is drastically different. As times goes by, he moves less and thinks even more in try to protect his body in order to be as fresh as he can. He is already sixth in the league in minutes per game, he has attempted more threes than anyone else, he is by far the first in assists and also second in assists/turnovers ratio.
- Take a look at his numbers. In 131 minutes on the court he has 8/30 threes and just ¼ two point shots. To get a picture of this, just one of his eight shots per game is a two pointer! However, he also has 8.3 asp, the best number in his career and just 0.8 turnover per game. He protects the ball, but doesn’t attempt any drives to the basket.
- One last interesting Panathinaikos‘ note. Mike Batiste has 8 ppg in 10 mpg. If you project this number in 40 minutes, he would be the top scorer of Euroleague with 30.87 ppg. Third on the same list is one more Green, Nikos Pappas (28.72).