Green delight in OAKA

By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net

It’s good to be Green, unless of course you are Unicaja Malaga. The 9th gameday of Top16 ended with Panathinaikos and Zalgiris Kaunas getting the “W” and the teams that are more likely to enter the play offs are obvious at this point with five more games left.

In group E, Real is alone on the top (8-1), followed by Anadolu Efes (7-2), CSKA Moscow (6-3) and Panathinaikos (6-3). Then we have Zalgiris Kaunas (4-5) and Unicaja Malaga (4-5), Alba Berlin (1-8) and the most torture team by last second defeats in Euroleague’s history ever, Brose Baskets (0-9).

In group F, the top belongs to Barcelona (8-1), Siena follows (7-2), then Olympiacos (6-3) and Khimki (5-4). The Russians have to be ware of Maccabi Tel Aviv (4-5) and Caja Laboral (4-5) and not of Fenerbahce/ Ulker (2-7) and Besiktas (0-9).

Eurohoops ΜVP

Roko Leni Ukic

For the second week in a row he was the player that gave the extra boost to Panathinaikos for a key win in the road to the the play offs. Don’t look at his 13 points, but at his 9 (!) rebounds, his 5 assist with only one turnover and at his pesky defense against Jordan Farmar. That’s why he is Eurohoops’ MVP for the second straight gameday, something never happened before.

Βest five

1. Roko Leni Ukic: Back to back…
2. Juan Carlos Navarro: The leader of Barcelona and Euroleague all time scoring legend did it against with 19 points on 5/10 three pointers in the 71-69 win over Khimki
3. Devin Smith: Logan made the final plays, but Smith was the most consistent player of Maccabi once more with 20 points in the 66-62 road win over Caja Laboral
4. Μindaugas Κuzminskas: Ηe had one of the best game of his career in the win of Zalgiris on the road over Unicaja (83-67) with 15 points, 2/2 three pointers and 8 rebounds
5. Nenad Krstic: 20 points on 8/12 shots, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block, no turnover in 29 minutes of action in CSKA Moscow’s win over Alba Berlin

Best losing performance: Maciej Lampe

The center of Caja Laboral gave a great battle against his former team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, but 19 points and 12 rebounds in 32 minutes weren’t enough. He was the only player, however, from coach Tabak’s roster who had a good game and Caja scored just 62 points in total. Dusko Savanovic had also 21 points against Panathinaikos but he was absent when the game was on the line.

Biggest win: Panathinaikos

Before two weeks the Greens were visiting Kaunas and nobody knew what the future would bring. After their 75-62 win over Anadolu Efes, we almost know. Tied with CSKA Moscow at 6-3, the Greens have made a very important step towards the play offs. If they also had won the game by 15 points, then they would also had the tie breaker advantage against Efes, but you can’t have everything.

The return: Maccabi Tel Aviv

The “team of the people” dug a 2-5 hole in the first round of Top16, but managed to climb out of it after two wins, last week against Siena and this time over Caja Laboral (66-62). The Israelis are now tied with the Basques for the fifth place of the standings in group F (4-5) one win behind fourth Khimki (5-4) and they have the right to dream the play offs.

The underachiever: Caja Laboral

“Elevator-team” is a Greek expression, when you have a team with many ups and downs in its performance during the season. That’s the case with Caja, which started the Euroleague season with a miserable 1-6 record, proceeded with 7 straight wins (3 in the regular season and 4 in Top16) and now after 5 straight defeats, the last one by Maccabi, it has a 4-5 record and lost its momentum

The disappointment: Fenerbahce/ Ulker

One more ugly defeat for Fenerbahce/ Ulker at Siena (87-69) was the nail in the coffin of their play offs ambitions. In the five remaining games the only “easy” opponent can be considered Besiktas on the road (the others are Maccabi and Olympiacos at home and Caja Laboral and Khimki on the road) and the only question left for them is if they can at least finish with a more respectable record than the one they have now (7-12 in total this Euroleague season).

The last word: Vladimir Romanov

After firing many coaches, being accused of demanding control of the team’s substitutions, winning the Lithuanian “Dancing with the Stars” and of course domestic titles with Zalgiris, he is officially no longer the president. He will be missed, if he’s really gone of course.

Euroleague 2012-2013 – Last16, 9th Day