By Panos Katsiroumpas/ info@eurohoops.net
For one more week, the Magnifying Glass takes you to the most important games of the week. Let’s take a look, then, at what happened in Kaunas, Istanbul and Barcelona
Zalgiris Kaunas – Fenerbahce
Pick-and-roll and Ekpe Udoh in the role of Nikola Vujcic
For 20 minutes Fener was having serious trouble against Zalgiris’s excellent defense. In the second half, though, Obradovic’s team found solutions almost entirely through the pick-and-roll. Dixon and Udoh were the axes, with Fener’s center functioning excellently as a stepping stone passer. He made a season-high record with 5 assists, while the two of them had 14 of the visitors’ 22 assists.
Switching defense
This was, for yet another game, the key for Fenerbahce’s prevalence. Zalgiris’s offense short-circuited in this defense, their good shooters got lost on the switches and mismatches couldn’t be found with great frequency. Once again, the axis in this defense was Ekpe Udoh, who did splendidly on every switch he found himself marking a guard, using his hands as well as his body excellently.
Sweet Melih
A key player and, at the same time, a revelation. While he didn’t play a whole lot, even when Bogdanovic was out, he stepped on the court as though he was a permanent member of the rotation and offered solutions from the perimeter. In eleven minutes he scored 14 points with 4-for-4 in three-point shooting and was essentially the player that helped greatly in increasing the lead.
Thumbs up to Zalgiris
Even if it didn’t work out well for them, they tried to create some wonderful plays in order to change the pace, and with some of them they found solutions so they could be able to keep abreast until the 33rd minute. Beautiful work is being done in Kaunas, the team is functioning and coach Jasikevicius deserves plaudits.
Darussafaka – Panathinaikos
Transition to die for
To a great extent, the hosts owe their win to their transition game. Darussafaka scored almost 25% of their points in fast breaks or early offense situations. This came as a result of some bad offensive choices on Panathinaikos’s part that caused imbalance in defense, but also of the aggressiveness of players such as Clyburn, Anderson and Wanamaker.
They beat the switching defense
Panathinaikos’s switching defense, which has brought their opponents to an impasse in so many games, was thoroughly beaten. All of Darussafaka’s guards struck on the switches and attacked their biggest opponents head on. It’s no coincidence that the home team scored 18 of their 31 shots on target from inside the paint, having scored very few points through pick-and-rolls and no points from posting up.
The defense on Bourousis was key
For the first part of the game Bourousis won several fouls on the mismatches that resulted from Darussafaka’a switching defense. After a certain point, though, the switches dwindled in the attacks in which the Greek center was involved and they were replaced by traps in the post. Help usually arrived from the strong side almost immediately once Panathinaikos’s big man put the ball on the floor. In this way, they forced him to stop dribbling and, through this pressure, to commit many turnovers. Bourousis’s tally was just one shot from inside the paint – which he missed – as well as seven turnovers, a record number for him in the competition.
22-3
In such close games as this one, any team that manages to produce a big run automatically gains an advantage for the win. From 26-33, the home team turned the game around and managed to lead 48-36. Panathinaikos had lost their way to the basket, while their defense could not stop the home team at that point. If we add to this the bad rotation from the bench, we have a major cause for Panathinaikos’s defeat.
Barcelona – CSKA Moscow
A derby only on paper
There was never a real game in the Palau Blaugrana. From beginning to end, CSKA dominated completely without even going into overdrive. With a screen on the ball and a couple of passes they got open looks whenever they wanted, while through good movement of the ball they also got in the paint with the same ease. An unbelievably easy win.
4-29
It’s the second biggest point difference in a quarter in the history of the EuroLeague. Barcelona essentially never showed up on the court. There aren’t that many things to analyze; it was as if men were playing against boys. Milos Teodosic’s three-pointer and won foul might have been the ultimate highlight in perhaps the most boring game to appear in this column this year.
Building from scratch
This will probably be the way forward for Barcelona. With Navarro having gotten older, Tomic not being able to respond to the speed with which basketball is now played, and with the keys of the team having been handed over to the rather incompetent as floor general Tyrese Rice, building the team from scratch seems imperative. There are good role players but above all they need players with basketball minds and a leader’s personality. The only benefit of this year’s abysmal season seems to be Sasha Vezenkov. It seems that the only thing that holds any interest for Barca is whether coach Bartzokas is going to be the one who undertakes the actualization of this step or whether it’s going to be someone else.