By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
It was a crazy night in Euroleague with unexpected results and big games. In the end, Barcelona with a win over Caja Laboral and a 11-1 record has secured the top spot of group F, but in group E everything is still open for the final standings as Real Madrid, Anadolu Efes and CSKA Moscow are tied at 9-3, followed by Panathinaikos (8-4) and Unicaja (6-6) which still has some chances of qualifying to the play offs.
- In a very close game which turned out to be a free throws contest in the last seconds, Panathinaikos got the 74-73 win against Real Madrid, despite its leader, Dimitris Diamantidis missing his last two efforts from the charity line. Still, Diamantidis did what he had to do earlier, as also did his long time teammate Kostas Tsartsaris, and with 3 seconds left, the best Real Madrid could do was a mid court three pointer by Sergio Rodriguez that couldn’t find its target, not even the backboard.
- Barcelona lost to Caja Laboral in Liga Endesa, however Euroleague is a different story. The guests were close to the hosts 1.39′ before the end (76-74), but Barca closed the game with a 7-0 run (83-74). Still, the big news is the confrontation after the end of the first half between coach Pascual and Pete Mickael. The American forward was mad at his coach for the way he was used, according to reports from Spain he cursed at him and didn’t play in the second half.
- Milos Teodosic scored two crucial three pointers in the last minutes and CSKA Moscow managed to beat Unicaja Malaga on the road 70-66. It was a very close contest, the hosts cut the lead of CSKA to two (68-66) 48” before the final buzzer and finally Sonny Weems sealed the victory with a big basket (70-66) with 17” left despite missing the free throw he won in the same play. Not only Unicaja lost the game, but in the final seconds Krunoslav Simon was injured in his left knee.
- Being unpaid and unsure about the future of the team, the players of Zalgiris Kaunas had the ego and the pride to beat Final Four contender Anadolu Efes (79-71). Darjus Lavrinovic with 24 points on 10/12 shots (3/4 three pointers) was the man of the match against Efes who had Jordan Farmar in a mediocre night, Sasha Vujacic out due to injury and the effort of Jamon Lucas Gordon just wasn’t enough.