By Panos Katsiroumpas/ info@eurohoops.net
Big European derbies, classic Euroleague match ups and fights for survival. Very important games were included in the 5th week of Euroleague’s Top16 and the teams which will battle for the play offs start to shine, however there are teams that continue to disappoint. Let’s have a more analytical overview to all this action.
It was only one week of happiness for the Turkish club before getting back to the place where they were from the beginning of the second round. In Milano the same problems appear for one more time. After the game against Panathinaikos that Fenerbahce kept their opponents below 75 points, on Thursday night Milano scored 90 points. The back-court defense of Fenerbahce was once again terrible with all the guard of Milano scoring in double digits and creating options for easy three pointers even for Kangur which is not a backcourt player. Spanoulis, Dragic, Marcelinho, Hackett and Jerrells were among the guards that killed Fenerbahce the previous weeks. This is not something happening by luck every time. There is a really big problem in back court defense for Fenerbahce. Moreover its obligatory to mention that in three games in Top16 away for Istanbul, Fenerbahce let their opponents scored 90 or more points. Kleiza comeback was not enough for the Turks and with 1-4 record they are really in the ropes and improvement is needed directly. Add to that the injury woes of Vidmar and Zoric and Zoc has to do a miracle – and also sign a player.
Milano: You are in the right path!!!
Olimpia Milano started Top 16 with an easy loss in Athens against Panathinaikos and many people believed that the chemistry is not an easy job for Luca Banchi and his team. From the second game against Olympiakos and then, Milano is a totally different team. Lawal and Hackett brought balance to the team, they created more spaces and options for one vs one game for Langford and Gentile who love this kind of play, they are real fighters in personal defense, the ball movement becomes better and a lot of three points shots are created for the talented shooters of the team. That’s why the number of assists is increasing every week. All these aspects of the game show the progress of the team and after five games Milano is included as a very strong contender for qualification. Another important aspect that shows how tough the Italians are, is the mental recovery of the team after an almost winning game against Efes that turned into a nightmare with the unbelievable shot of Zoran Planinic.
21!!!
That was the huge number of Olympiacos‘ offensive rebounds in the game against Malaga. Even though the European champions didn’t found the same offensive rhythm as one week earlier against Laboral Kutxa in Vitoria, the difference in rebounding and the almost 30 second chance points gave them a big advantage and an easy win against Malaga. Olympiakos had 40 offensive rebound in the first four games (10 per game), but got a real push this week, getting the same number of offensive rebound as the defensive rebound of Malaga (21). Additionally the absence of Calloway was an obvious problem for the team from Andalusia. Olympiakos played great defense, pressed a lot Jayson Granger and Malaga didn’t have other solutions in the point guard position and in the part of creativity. The results appeared in the score box. Only 55 points for a team that had an average of 80 points in the second round.
The Milos effect!!
Milos Teodosic is a very talented player and everybody knows that. What is disputable is his concentration in the game and his personal defense that many times becomes a black hole and a negative effect for his team. However in the game against Bayern Munich, Teodosic was pure magic with 24 points, 16 of them in the first half, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, giving the ability to his team to reach the best offensive performance of the season with 86 points and a total of 22 assists in an arena difficult for any team to play. CSKA was serious for the first minute and never looked back. What is needed from Μilos is stability to his game because the good Teodosic is an advantage very difficult to be matched by any opponent.
Classic match up number 1!!
The most impressive number from the classic match up of Real Madrid against Maccabi is the SCORE of the game itself!!! Two teams that love to run, that love offense and to play in very high tempo combined for a total of 142 points with Real Madrid winning the game in a dramatic fashion (74-68). This is the second game in this year’s Euroleague that Real scores below 75 points. The first was the game one week ago in Moscow which was also the only loss of the Madrid giants. Additionally the same things we can say about Maccabi, a team that had an average scoring of 87, 5 points in the second round and scored only 68. Despite the lack of usual scoring the game was a real Euroleague classic, a close game that was decided from the 2 big three pointers from Sergio Llull who seems to be in great shape. As a conclusion we can admit that Maccabi is really strong this year and despite the absence of injured Shawn James is a very tough team that can go very far away to this years competition.
Classic match up number 2!!
Panathinaikos and Barcelona played a very tough five game series the previous year and the rivalry and competitiveness between those two teams is very high. The tempo of the game after the first 15 minutes was in favor of Panathinaikos but every time the Greens looked like coming back, Barca was there to answer. The Catalans punished Panathinaikos for their choice to give space to Marcelinho, who was doing everything in the first half. Scoring, passing and generally organized the game in the perfect way. Barca had also a good frontcourt efficiency with making all the adjustments and found all the mismatches that were created through the screen changes of Panathinaikos. The Greens seemed to have again a lack of planning in the offensive end, which was obvious in the final five minutes where Panathinaikos was looking for a last comeback but manage to score only 2 points when at the same time Barca scored only one point. After five games the Spanish team has already won in Istanbul and twice in Athens, almost “locking” the 1st place of the group very early.
Fighting for survival
There were three games in this week program in which teams that seem to be in trouble played against each other their hopes of staying alive in the competition and the qualification run. From these three games, two Turkish teams manage to stay alive and continue to keep their hopes for qualification combining with Lokomotiv Kuban. In our opinion all the three winning teams have a lot to do in order to stay close to qualification.
- Juan Carlos Arroyo was the real star in Galatasaray– Zalgiris game having 22 points, most of them in crucial parts of the game combining with 9 assists, Arslan also scored in times where Zalgiris was getting closer. The problem with Galatasaray is defense, in the majority of the games cannot keep their opponents in less than 80 points and they don’t have so talented teams in order to win better teams in high scoring games.
- Lokomotiv got the 3rd win in a row and the second away from Russia in the place where Cska was defeated two weeks ago. Very open games with very little focus on defense which is not a characteristic of Partizan and a rhythm of game better suitable for the team from Russia. Surprising performance by Likhodey who is a great shooter in the competition and he scored 5/5 behind the 3 point line killing Partizan every time that was forcing a comeback. Kinsey had 32 points in an incredible game of him but where not enough for the Serbs.
- Efes got an easy win in Vitoria without Barac, Erden, Hopson and injury of Gordon in the 4th quarter with a sprained ankle. Bjelica punished his previous team for letting him go with 15 points and also Vasileiadis gave a blast to neighbors of Bilbao who see the biggest rival in the team of Laboral kutxa. For the Baskonistas nothing is changed again, a team without any plan, a coach who does not know what he wants to do with his team and a roster that is not as good as the roster of previous years but also a team that seems that is not enjoying the game at all. Big skepticism in Vitoria for president Quereheta.