By Panos Katsiroubas/ info@eurohoops.net
Second week of the Top-16 and again there were all kind of emotions in the Euroleague courts! Suspense, drama, surprises, comebacks and real quality basketball. Let’s see together the interesting facts about what we have seen in these 8 games.
Emporio Armani Milano: A paranormal phenomenon!!!
Milano hosted the 2 times European Champions Olympiakos and lets take a look to some important numbers of the game.
-Milano had only 7!! assists
-Olympiakos had 7 more offensive rebounds
-The turnovers difference was +3 in favor of Milano.
If somebody looked at these numbers he would expect a close game or an easy win of Olympiakos. Final result was 81-51 for Milano.CRAZY!!
The difference was in defence. Gani Lawal and Daniel Hackett were the main reasons. Lawal is a defensive monster! In the 25 minutes he was on the court Olympiakos managed to score almost 25 points and he closed every route to the Italian paint. Milano is still a very talented team in backcourt mainly, but also a team who still has no team work plan in offence and is based only in isolation and talent. The number of assists speaks for itself.
Blackout…
Olympiakos hit in a wall at Milano. Only 51 points which is the worst offensive game of the reds since 2004, with 30 points after the first quarter. The defence of Milano was very aggressive and energetic but olympiakos showed signs of exhaustion and very little energy in both offence and defence.
SAMBA!!
Ok we know that barcelona has problems in the point guard position, that they have very little creativity, that only Marcelinho Huertas is a real point guard for this team. But in the game against Fenerbahce Ulker he played for him, all the other Barca point guards and also for Navarro who missed the game. With 23 points, 7 assists, 4 steals and a crucial 3 point shot that sealed the win for the Catalan side. Spanoulis last week, Marcelinho this week, we think that Bo will see them as ghosts in his nightmares!!
Lina, this is not the NBA!!!
In one of the funniest moments in Euroleague this season Linas Kleiza of Fenerbahce asked a time out when he was fallen next to the base line and he couldn’t pass the ball to one of his teammates. The result was a crucial turnover for his team and some curiousity for the referees. His level of concentration was at low standards in this game if we add his only 2 points in 20 minutes. Where is your mind LINAS??
25!!
This was the number of assist for Maccabi Tel – aviv in the game against Lokomotiv Kuban. Unbelievable number if we add that that Israeli team is considered as one of the most naive teams in this competition. Something is changed this year and in our opinion Maccabi has the best team of the last 5 years. What is left is to see the level of competitiveness and where this team has its ceiling, especially when they have Sofoklis in such great offensive shape. He made 22 points in 15 minutes!He really engulfed his opponents!
28-0 and counting.
Ok nobody expected Real Madrid to finish their unbeaten run with a game at home against Galatasaray, but we need to mention that Real continues impressing, winnning and extending records. With Rudy having a bad offensive night the Spanish team had six other players in double digits in points. Unbelievable pluralism that is very difficult to find in any other team, When the leading scorer is in a mediocre day.
Rock from Gabon!!
In this era of basketball two are the key positions for a team in order to succeed, the point guard and the center positions. In these to very important positions Panathinaikos had through these years the 3 time champion of Euroleague Dimitris Diamantidis and in midseason of the previous year added Stephane Lasme. Both players helped Panathinaikos to escape with a crucial win from Vitoria especially the rock from Gabon with his 20 points in less than 20 minutes.
Thriller in Istanbul
The most intense game was that between Anadolu Efes and Unicaja Malaga, close game with several lead changes and in the end the Spanish team remained concentrated and calm from the free throw line. So, finally they got an away win and also overcomed the home loss against Laboral Kutxa.
ARREST HIM!!
Come on Guy Pnini are you serious!!! Basketball police has to arrest this guy for what he did to Aleks Maric. Real shame for this guy who had also in the past some unacceptable actions.