By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Only Panathinaikos and Barcelona managed to defend their home court on the first night of Top16. Real Madrid, Laboral Kutxa and Maccabi Tel Aviv got the road wins in Belgrade, Malaga and Istanbul respectively.
For unbeaten in any competition Real Madrid the 80-64 win over Partizan even in front of 21.000 Serbian fans wasn’t a surprise. The hottest team in Europe started 2014 the way 2013 ended. This time Giannis Bourousis with a double double (15 p., 10 r.) was the best among equals for the winners. On the contrary Maccabi and Laboral Kutxa needed a great second half in order to get the win. The Israelis with a 12-0 fourth quarter run prevailed (90-84) over Galatasaray, while Laboral Kutxa had 15 on 24 threes, the highest total in its Top16 history, in the 93-79 win over Unicaja.
Panathinaikos had the rebounds (39 to 22) and controlled the game against EA7 Milano from start to finish, so getting the 73-57 win wasn’t hard. As for Barcelona, they wanted to rebound after losing in Liga Endesa to Real Madrid and exploded against Anadolu Efes (84-65) in game that was decided from the first half.