By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
While there was no shortage of great individual performances in Round 2 of the Eurocup Top 16, we have to be honest: Some quite memorable defensive strategies didn’t only steal the show this week but also produced some new records related to the “how to prevent your opponents from scoring” subject.
It’s by forcing Murcia into writing… negative history (read below) in the competition that Lokomotiv Kuban doubled its victories in the Top 16. It was erasing all threat posed by Cedevita that paced Unicaja Malaga to win “no. 2” in the current stage as well. Even teams that made buckets abundantly, like Bayern Munich or Hapoel Jerusalem, were also very much relied on holding their opponents quite leashed in order to reach the desired result.
MVP of the Week: Janis Timma (Zenit St. Petersburg)
It was of utmost importance for Zenit (a team that aspires going all the way in the competition) to recover after a negative entrance in the Top 16. And Timma’s potent versatility more or less wrote the script of the victory over Lietuvos Rytas. Being a leader of his team once more, the Latvian swingman dropped 27 points (on 5/6 two-pointers, 5/9 from the perimeter), grabbed 6 rebounds, dished out 3 assists, adding 2 steals and blocking his opponents twice. There are moments where his game flies on a completely superior level compared to his opponents.
Best Five of the Week:
- Pako Cruz (Fuenlabrada): Scoring, creation, rebounding. You name it! Pako Cruz enriched Fuenlabrada’s game in more ways than one, finishing the match vs Gran Canaria with 16 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds being the top performer of his team in its first Top 16 victory. Oh and he had zero turnovers in the 28 minutes he stayed on court, while carrying out all kinds of offensive labors with the ball in his hands. Can’t ask more from your floor general.
- Mindaugas Lukauskis (Lietkabelis): Before Lietkabelis sounded the charge for a fantastic comeback against Ratiopharm Ulm, veteran Lukauskis was holding its team’s head above the water. The timing of his action was a key element in the upcoming victory of his team since he hit multiple three-pointers during a timeframe when Ulm looked ready to begin a “knock-out” procedure. He finished with a season-high 21 points (4/6 from downtown).
- Janis Timma (Zenit St. Petersburg): Second time he’s winning MVP this season and something tells us it’s not going to be the last.
- Shawn Jones (Hapoel Jerusalem): He registered all sorts of season-highs in Hapoel Jerusalem’s victory over Nizhny Novgorod. Points (21), rebounds (9), PIR (29) and playing time (22 minutes). Dominant in every way you can think of, he was one of the reasons why it looked so easy for Hapoel vs the Russian squad.
- Kevin Jones (Lokomotiv Kuban): The fact that he was the top scorer, rebounder, performer and second-best passer of his team, doesn’t really do justice to the total impact he had on Lokomotiv Kuban’s victory over Murcia. Apart from finishing with 15 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists, Jones big-time defenses and key hustle on both ends during the last minute pushed back the Spaniards’ final attempts to upset their hosts via a comeback which came almost out of nowhere.
Coach of the Week: Sasa Djordjevic (Bayern Munich)
Bayern Munich performed impressive, fun to watch, and, most importantly, highly effective basketball in the second half against Khimki Moscow, leaving behind its problems during the first twenty minutes and, ultimately, reaching the victorious result almost comfortably. With fast tempo attacks and exemplary cooperations, the Bavarian squad finished the match with 21 assists and no less than five players dropping points in double digits. This offensive success of coach Djordjevic’s tactics becomes even greater, considering that Khimki is a team guided by a strict defensive-minded coach, like Dusko Ivanovic.
The Last Word: A defense to be lectured in seminars.
As I wrote on the prologue, there were many defensive marvels this week in Eurocup, but we are going to distinguish the one of Lokomotiv Kuban. The reason is simple: Never before had a team made only 5 (!) two-point shots in the history of the competition until Murcia in Krasnodar tonight. This is a new low for Eurocup and portrays how much the Spanish team suffered connecting to the basket in the hands of its hosts.