By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Two weeks are left, four teams have secured their play offs spot and two of them, Barcelona and EA7 Milano already know their final standings. To be exact in Group E, Barca is on top (12-0), Milan is second (9-3), followed in the third place by Olympiacos and Panathinaikos (6-6). Then Unicaja and Fenerbahce (5-7) are still on the play offs hunt, while Laboral Kutxa (3-9) and Anadolu Efes (2-10) are out.
In Group F the situation is similar as CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid (10-2) will fight for the top until the last moment, Maccabi Tel Aviv (7-5) is still on play offs course, followed by Lokomotiv Kuban and Galatasaray (6-6), but don’t count out yet Bayern Munich (5-7). Partizan (3-9) and Zalgiris (1-11) are just spectators at this point and here’s what happened.
ΜVP
Sergio Rodriguez
Simply put, he is the man. Among the top quality roster of Real Madrid he is the stand out, having the best season of his career. In the 77-76 win over Maccabi he came from the bench and in 20 minutes had 21 points, on 11/11 free throws, five assists, two rebounds, one turnover and one block. Yes, he is that good.
Best five
- Sergio Rodriguez: Our choice for the MVP award, not only for this week, but also for the season.
- Vasilis Spanoulis: He is back and he just transforms Olympiacos when he is present. He started the game with 10 points in 8 minutes, finished it with 20 points, four assists and four turnovers as the Reds beat Unicaja on the road (80-63).
- David Moss: His stats are not that impressive (15 p., 3 r., 3 as.), however his role on the 82-73 road win of Milano against Fenerbahce was more than important. He was everywhere in defense and a game changer.
- Derrick Brown: He proved this season that he belongs to the top level and against Partizan (84-73) had the best game of his career as he had 18 points, five rebounds, seven assists, three steals, one block and one turnover in 37 minutes of action.
- Tibor Pleiss: He is the only bright spot until now this season for Laboral Kutxa and in the 105-79 road win against Efes he had 20 points on 6/9 shots and also seven rebounds.
Best losing performance: Alex Tyus
Sports at time can be really cruel and the center of Maccabi Tel Aviv was a victim of this cruelty in the 77-76 defeat of his team by Real Madrid. On 26 minutes of action he was almost perfect with 18 points on 9/9 shots, 11 rebounds and only one missed free throw. However his only missed shot decided the outcome of the game, as he lost the chance to convert a three point play with two seconds left on the clock which could have send the game to overtime. Still, he had a hell of a game.
Biggest win: EA7 Milano
As it turned out the win of EA7 Milano at Istanbul (82-73) proved to be the more decisive result of the week. The Italians, thanks also to the win of Barcelona over Panathinaikos, have secured the second spot of Group E and they have the home court advantage in the play offs, which can lead them to the final four, organized in their city. And in case you forgot it, the team is finishing Top16 without its top scorer and one of the standouts of the second Euroleague phase, Keith Langford.
The favorites: CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid, Barcelona
The Russians did what they had to do against Bayern and got the 77-70 win. We expected Real to have an easier task in Tel Aviv, but Maccabi was more than feisty and that makes this win important. The transition defense of the Israelis managed to shut down this aspect of Real’s game, however the players of coach Lasso finally prevailed. In the two horses race for the top spot of Group F at this point CSKA has the advantage just by two points in the total goal average and nothing is yet finished. To be exact, CSKA has a +126 (100-874) and Real Madrid is at +124 (1029-905). As for Barcelona, against Panathinaikos which had the highest possible motive for a road win, cruised to the easy 84-62 win and secured mathematically the top spot of Group E.
Key win: Olympiacos
The Reds needed a big win and managed to get a season sweep over Unicaja, something not that easy as it seems. Still nothing is decided yet in Group E, two play offs spots are for grabs and there will be blood in the next two weeks. Galatasaray and Lokomotiv also got what they wanted in must win games against Zalgiris and Partizan, however the difference is that Olympiacos prevailed on the road against a team which is still in the play offs race.
Last word: Zoc and Arteaga
Zeljko Obradovic is never shy towards referees, but what happened in the game of Fenerbahce/ Ulker against EA7 Milano hasn’t happened to that degree before. Zoc had to be restrained before being ejected in the third quarter. So here things are getting tricky. Juan Carlos Arteaga, the referee who send him out, made headlines around Europe with this interview and probably he shouldn’t be on the court of such a crucial game. Coach Banchi of EA7 Milano said in the press conference that “referees made too many mistakes like the players” and certainly some calls didn’t go Fener‘s way.
That been said, it’s almost shocking to see a well respected coach like Obradovic behaving like that, considering the fact that this kind of “explosions” can be used as a tool to “wake up” the team. Zoc was almost asking to get ejected, his team reacted, got withing five points in the last quarter, but it was too late in order to save the day…