By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
San Antonio Spurs got the win in Istanbul, however the final 96-90 left also Fenerbahce/ Ulker happy. After losing to Alba Berlin, the NBA champions were expected to bounce back, but they couldn’t so early in the season dominate the Turkish team.
Tony Parker who was crucial in the finish of the game had 22 points, Tim Duncan was the top scorer with 23 and Manu Ginobili added 12 points and 8 rebounds. Former NBA player Andrew Goudelock finished the game with 30 points for Fenerbahce, however 26 of them were made during the first three quarters. The hosts even got the lead by a point (64-63) during the third quarter, but they best they could do in the last quarter was make it a six points game (94-88) with 66 seconds to go.
It was a game between two good friends with coach Gregg Popovich having only good things to say about his opponent Zeljko Obradovic: “Obradovic is a very good coach, a good person and a good friend. It was good seeing him again. This is my ninth trip to Istanbul, everything was great, great food, great places and I received as a gift a good bottle of win by Zeljko. He is one of the best coaches in the world”. Obradovic returned the favor: “I spent lot of time watching San Antonio this summer and I’ve talked to coach Popovich a lot during that time. Spurs play a special way. Everything in their game is under control. They have the best ball movement in the world”.