By Stefan Djordjevic / info@eurohoops.net
Despite missing a number of players, Anadolu Efes still outplayed Crvena Zvezda mts for a 75-64 road win in Round 11 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. Efes improved to 6-4 while Zvezda holds a 4-7 record.
Vasilije Micic, Rodrigue Beaubois, Bryant Dunston and Tibor Pleiss were all sidelined this game for Efes but Shane Larkin with 18 and Adrien Moerman with 17 points stepped up for the occasion.
“We played a fantastic third quarter. Our defense was excellent tonight. On offense, we moved the ball well, we always found the open shot and we got the big advantage. Okay, in the fourth quarter we only scored 8 points. We got a little bit tired. But in the end, what’s important is we were missing four of our main players, but my team always plays the same basketball. So I am proud of the guys. When they are on the court it doesn’t matter what the situation is, what the difficulties, everybody plays with hustle and everybody plays with game discipline. It’s a very important victory for us,” coach Ergin Ataman said after the match.
He also delivered a strong message about the conflicting schedules of FIBA and EuroLeague which don’t make it easy for the players to help the club and the national team at the same time.
Krunoslav Simon was off to a slower start than usual but still contributed with 11 points for the Turkish team that banked in a total of 15 threes (53.6%). Five of them came from Moerman who missed only one time from deep while also grabbing nine rebounds, stealing the ball three times and dishing two assists.
For Crvena Zvezda, which struggled from the three-point range (25%) and offensively – as well as defensively – in general, Corey Walden scored 14 and Jordan Loyd ten points.
The outcome was somewhat surprising considering Efes’ arrived in the Serbian capital short-handed but the home squad didn’t ‘show up’. It seemed they didn’t have a concrete idea offensively while the usual individual quality from their backcourt led by Loyd wasn’t there.
Zvezda coach Sasa Obradovic explained that while there was a clear plan of action, the execution lacked: “We knew what we were supposed to do. We talked about the high rhythm defensively and offensively. But we could not always deal with it. We could not come up with the energy to keep up in this game for 40 minutes. That was the biggest reason from our side.”
Additionally, there was much miscommunication defensively on defending pick and rolls, a lack of energy and focus, which led to wide-open shots for Efes who definitely came ready to seal the deal on the road.
Zvezda had an 8-0 start but Efes quickly responded and was up by 14 points (35-21) already midway through the second quarter. The Serbian squad showed some comeback effort but coach Ataman didn’t allow his team to fall and a few well-placed time-outs gave them the much-needed rest and response to stay ahead for the win.