By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Euroleague’s top-16 starts in the first days of 2016 and the competition’s second phase slowly speeds up! Four matches are set to take place on Thursday and the remaining four will be played on Friday. The fight between the defending champions’ Real Madrid and CSKA Moscow, which hasn’t claimed the title since 2008, is certainly the match of the week.
From Eurohoops’ Game Center, you can read previews for all eight matches, exactly like they had been published by Euroleague, along with players’ comments, Game Notes, statistics and anything else you need to know!
Game of the week: CSKA Moscow vs Real Madrid (January 7, 18.00 CET Time)
It can certainly be considered a traditional battle! It’s the 38th meeting between these two European giants and it’s worth mentioning that the last time the “Whites” played against the “Bear” in a knockout match, was in the 1969 European Championship Final! Since 2008, they have never met either in a play-off series or the Final-4. CSKA Moscow (0-1) is in a position of strength to earn the victory, despite their loss to Khimki in the opening game. On the other hand, the Madrid squad continues to be inconsistent, has many problems defensively, especially in the paint, and it will be difficult for Pablo Laso to cover the gap of Rudy Fernandez’s and Sergio Llull’s absences against a top-level opponent.
Darussafaka vs Cedevita (January 7, 20.00 CET Time)
Laboral Kutxa vs Olympiacos (January 7, 20.30 CET Time)
Barcelona vs Khimki (January 7, 20.45 CET Time)
Lokomotiv Kuban vs Anadolu Efes (January 8, 18.00 CET Time)
Brose Baskets vs Zalgiris Kaunas (January 8, 20.00 CET Time)
Crvena Zvezda vs Fenerbahce (January 8, 20.00 Time)
Panathinaikos vs Unicaja Malaga (January 8, 20.45 CET Time)
Things you need to know…
CSKA Moscow has the best offence in the entire competition, as Dimitirs Itoudis’ players score 91.1 points per game!
Giannis Bourousis, who will eventually play against Olympiacos, had been named MVP of the regular season’s second round, in Laboral Kutxa win over the Reds, and is currently Euroleague’s top rebounder and the best player in the ranking system. Moreover, he is coming from a tremendous performance against Real Madrid, which gave him the MVP award in Liga Endesa’s 14th round.
Dimitris Diamantidis needs only five points to surpass J.R Holden (2.388 points) and be seventh in the all-time scoring list.