By Panos Katsiroubas/info@eurohoops.net
The Magnifying Glass focuses its attention on all the courts of Turkish Airlines Euroleague and each week examines through its basketball lens some of the games that stole the show in Europe’s top competition!
Madrid’s escape from Moscow
In a huge game in Moscow, Real Madrid, despite the absences of Felipe Reyes and Andres Nocioni, managed to get a very important road victory to win back one of the losses it suffered on its home court in Madrid. The win becomes all the more important when we consider that up to the 25th minute, Khimki Moscow Region was completely dominating the game. In the first half, Madrid’s defense suffered greatly from Khimki’s pick-and-roll game. With Tyrese Rice and Alexey Shved as the main conduits, Khimki relentlessly struck against the slow rotations of Madrid’s big men, and with James Augustine’s very good screens inside the paint, scored with frequency. Aside from the plays where they scored on assists, Rice and Shved also took advantage of isolations following defensive switches and reached the basket with ease.
The result was that Rice and Shved shared 21 points and 10 assists in the first half. In addition, Augustine had 16 points with amazing percentages. On the other side of the court, Madrid scored in transition, even on secondary fast breaks, either through penetrations by the guards or shots from the perimeter before the Khimki defense could set up. In the halfcourt five-on-five game, Madrid had several significant problems mostly due to Augustine’s amazing defensive presence: he covered distances quickly and used his hands for several deflections that ruined many attacks.
In the last 15 minutes, though, the game turned around and this happened mostly due to Madrid’s much better handling of the pick-and-roll. A key player for this change of pace was K. C. Rivers, who played a free-roaming role in his team’s defense from the weak side, essentially ignoring the man he was assigned to guard. His presence made passes in the paint harder after they had sailed in there unbothered in the first half. Aside from this, Rivers watching the paint also provided more time for Gustavo Ayon to return there and cover it. The result of this defense was the many steals, blocks and ruined attacks for Khimki. Ayon and Rivers made 7 steals between them, while Khimki’s concentration levels were altered, resulted in many offenses being carried out without any logic and many shots taken under poor conditions.
On its own offensive end, Madrid struck using the same weapon their opponents had used in the first half; constant pick-and-rolls with Ayon going wild and finishing one play after the other while Sergio Rodriguez and Sergio Llull finished the game with 16 assists. The Mexican center had the game of the year, with 24 points, 13 rebounds, 5 steals and just 2 missed shots. Khimki couldn’t read some advantages in their attacks and didn’t take advantage of Rice when, for about 5 minutes, he was guarded by Jaycee Carroll, who isn’t exactly best known for his defensive abilities. It was more than a fair victory for Pablo Laso’s men, who shuffled the deck a lot and worked within the game until coming up with a functional lineup that could perform on both ends of the court.
Laboral Kutxa, the most in-form team!
Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz proved for yet another game, by obliterating Brose Baskets Bamberg, that they are one of the most in-form teams in Europe! The flagship of their success was their excellent defense. Velimir Perasovic’s players protected the paint in an excellent way against Bamberg’s good passing. On every play where the visitors tried to approach the rival basket, there were bodies and raised hands everywhere, blocking and deflecting shots, blocking passes and creating tremendous problems. Adam Hanga protected the weak side excellently, with his presence, his athleticism and commitment making a big impact on the defensive. Many of Laboral’s easy points in transition began from defense.
Overall, the home team had 10 steals and 6 blocks, and if we add to these the contacts that deflected passes and threw the Bamberg offense off its rhythm, we will understand the magnitude of the difference made by Laboral’s defense. The offense followed the team’s defensive rhythm on the other side of the court. Ioannis Bourousis was once again the catalyst, scoring in the post whenever the ball reached him there, but also from the perimeter with his now-classic pop-out moves following the screens that he sets for the team’s guards. Darius Adams and Mike James scored with very high frequency as well, often in two-on-two situations on the good screens set by Bourousis. They also took advantage of almost every switch made by the defense that left them facing a big man. That’s when James and Adams struck with the speed and explosiveness that characterizes them, either with mid- and long-range shots, or through penetrations to the rim.
Whenever it needed to do so, Laboral circulated the ball well and created open perimeter shots with good screens along the wings. The hosts did the same whenever Bamberg’s defense closed inwards to better protect the paint. Andrea Trinchieri’s players worked hard on offense and executed their plays well enough, but they were off-target and couldn’t score in the open court despite some good opportunities. By their presence alone, Laboral’s athletic players – Hanga first and foremost – created doubt in their opponents to approach the basket, depriving them of easy points. This was the fourth consecutive win for Laboral, which now sits tied with CSKA Moscow at the top of the “group of death” halfway through the Top 16.
CSKA won the chess game in Moscow
In Moscow, we had the repeat of last year’s semifinal of the Final Four in Madrid, this time with CSKA Moscow prevailing over Olympiacos Piraeus and taking a little revenge for its semifinal defeat in May. The game looked like a chessboard on which the coaches constantly made moves to strike at the opponent’s weaknesses. At the beginning of the game, yet again the key player – and this season’s revelation – was Nikita Kurbanov. Dimitrios Itoudis started out with a tall lineup with the clear intention of trying to get the ball in the post. Kurbanov and Nando De Colo did plenty damage against Vangelis Mantzaris and Matt Lojeski. On the other end of the court, Kurbanov undertook another mission, to defend Vassilis Spanoulis, something that he succeeded in doing as the Olympiacos captain was unable to find the target and committed several turnovers early.
Overall, the visitors had difficulties dealing with CSKA’s inside game, especially on the switching defenses that visiting coach Giannis Sfairopoulos consciously opts for. The switches resulted in constant mismatches in favor of the home team, who, using the smartness of their guards, struck with great frequency. Kyle Hines and Joel Freeland did a lot of damage in the pick-and-roll game, but also in high-low plays. With the offense stretched out and them passes from the top of the paint, helping on defense became a big risk for Olympiacos. In that time period, Olympiacos scored mostly from Georgios Printezis’s game in the post: he didn’t essentially have an opponent who could deal with him. Lojeski also offered solutions with shots from the corners and off the dribble.
In the second half, Olympiacos was visibly better, with its defense providing more frequent solutions. Moreover, they raised the quality of their offensive choices considerably, with Spanoulis having a great third quarter, mostly in pick-and-roll situations. He penetrated the defense multiple times, getting all the way to the basket, while he also created many impressive plays for Othello Hunter. Daniel Hackett was great in yet another game, on both ends of the floor.
Olympiacos took the lead and seemed capable of taking CSKA to the limit. From that point onwards, however, Milos Teodosic’s class spoke as he scored some great shots on offense. He read the switches on defense and punished them on every play in which he had either Printezis or Ioannis Papapetrou against him, scoring but also drawing several fouls with his intelligence at forcing contact. Outside of Teodosic, Cory Higgins gave his team a big boost with some difficult baskets at crucial points on plays when it looked like the defense was winning. For Olympiacos, some off-target shots also cost them in what could have been easy finishes from up close, while in some transition situations, when they could have executed faster for easy points, their hesitation gave CSKA’s defense the chance to get organized. However, the most important element that decided the game in CSKA’s favor was the absolute capitalization of every advantage they had in offense almost throughout the entire game.
Panathinaikos is still alive
After a bad start of three defeats in the first four Top 16 games, performing poorly in most of them, Panathinaikos Athens looked like they were getting left behind in the battle for the playoffs. But three consecutive wins since then have reintroduced Aleksandar Djordjevic’s team to the playoff conversation. After Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul and Cedevita Zagreb, it was Anadolu Efes Istanbul’s turn to suffer defeat in battle at the Olympic Sports Center Athens. From the beginning of the game, the home team tried to get the ball in the post, mostly to the players that Jon Diebler had been switched onto defensively. Vladimir Jankovic and Aleksandar Pavlovic scored a lot against Diebler.
Efes responded with some variations of the pick-and-roll, with the big men setting up screens at the top and then cutting towards the basket, once the player in the ‘4’ position popped out. With the Panathinaikos defense giving help against an Efes big man, the other attackers found the space and the time to shoot, but also to take advantage of the open lanes by scoring. The truly big protagonist of the opening 20 minutes was Miroslav Raduljica, who scored 16 points with amazing percentages for Panathinaikos. He was explosive and he punished the rival defense in every way. He dominated the post, finished pick-and-roll plays ideally, and even scored following screens away from the ball and cuts to the paint. At the start of the second half, Panathinaikos’s defense was better and made it hard for Efes to pass and circulate the ball. The Greens stole balls, scored in transition and took advantage of every mismatch as well as every moment when the visitors’ lost their concentration.
As a result, Panathinaikos got a 10-point lead, 50-40, that forced Efes coach Dusan Ivkovic to change his lineup and his approach to the game. Playing with two forwards and no center, he tried to make his team more versatile and faster on offense. He also created mismatches, forcing Raduljica to come out to the perimeter to deal with Dario Saric, and opened up the spacing to make it hard for Panathinaikos to help defensively. When Efes was playing defense, he instructed Saric to guard Raduljica from the front in order to make it difficult for him to get the ball in the post. His offensive tactics paid off, but in yet another game, Efes got hurt by very bad defense at both the individual and collective levels.
With some simple screens away from the ball, Panathinaikos created room inside the paint but also overloads along the sides that punished Efes’s slow defensive reactions with open shots. In this way, Panathinaikos maintained the lead and got the win against a team with the same goals. This win becomes even greater when we consider that Dimitris Diamantidis was essentially absent, playing just 6 minutes, with Panathinaikos awaiting the inclusion of MarQuez Haynes and Elliot Williams in the team for the second half of the Top 16.