By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Status, dynamics, form and the significance of results were the criteria for ranking the 18 teams.
#18 FC BAYERN MUNICH
Previous ranking: 16 (-2)
Record: 7-17
At home: 6-6
Away: 1-11
Offense-Defense: 74.1-81.9
With nine defeats in the last ten games and a general weakness away from Munich, Bayern shouldn’t ask for much as they move forward in the regular season. The sixth-worst offense and the sixth-worst defense combine for the competition’s -worst point differential (188). As if those weren’t enough, Bayern also commits the most turnovers (15.0 per game). This is how they’ve reserved the last place for themselves for the last six rounds now.
#17 ZENIT ST PETERSBURG
Previous ranking: 17 (-)
Record: 7-17
At home: 3-9
Away: 4-8
Offense-Defense: 74.8-80.8
Zenit has four defeats in the last five games. Those, in combination with their overall course, were more than enough to warrant a change of their coach, with Xavi Pascual arriving in place of Joan Plaza. They are ranked fourth from last in offense (including fourth in turnovers with 13.8) and in the middle in defense (eighth-worst), stats that haven’t allowed them to beat any teams from the current top eight or to get any higher than 14th place, which was way back in Round 5.
#16 LDLC ASVEL VILLEURBANNE
Previous ranking: 7 (-9)
Record: 9-15
At home: 8-5
Away: 1-10
Offense-Defense: 74.4-81.4
Up until Round 16, ASVEL was on the margins of the positions that lead to the playoffs. With seven defeats in the last eight games, that looks like a distant memory. The fact that half of those defeats came in games against teams from the current top six (Real Madrid, Anadolu Efes Istanbul, Panathinaikos OPAP Athens, in that order) or away from home (Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, Efes, Panathinaikos, KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz), where they’re not doing well anyway (second-worst record), didn’t help the situation. On top of everything else, they’re also the team with the third-worst offense and the seventh-worst defense.
#15 ALBA BERLIN
Previous ranking: 14 (-1)
Record: 8-16
At home: 4-7
Away: 4-9
Offense-Defense: 85.2-89.3
The wins in Piraeus, Belgrade and Milan would mean a lot for any other team, but not for ALBA, who have the league’s second-worst home record. They have a problem when they don’t get close to their average scoring (85.2 points per game), which is the third-best in the competition (first in assists with 19.8 and, at the same time, third in turnovers with 13.9), since they also have the worst defense. It’s not that they’re not trying (they’ve been in five of this season’s 14 overtimes), but…
#14 KIROLBET BASKONIA VITORIA-GASTEIZ
Previous ranking: 15 (+1)
Record: 9-15
At home: 7-4
Away: 2-11
Offense-Defense: 74-78.4
Injuries had begun to defeat Baskonia long before rival teams did. Now they’re getting further and further away from the privileged top eight. How could it be any different with just four wins after the team’s initial 5-5 result up until Round 10? Backup has arrived (see Semaj Christon, Zoran Dragic) but the absences are still more and significant, something that affects the worst offense in the competition (second in turnovers with 14.4). Paradoxically, they are one of nine defenses that concede fewer than 80 points. However, together with Tornike Shengelia (fifth in the PIR with 18.3), that is the exception in terms of good news for this team.
#13 CRVENA ZVEZDA MTS BELGRADE
Previous ranking: 9 (-4)
Record: 10-14
At home: 6-7
Away: 4-7
Offense-Defense: 75.1-77.1
All good things must come to an end, and so it goes for Zvezda, who, from their rise to eighth place under the instructions of Dragan Sakota (Rounds 17-19), now have five defeats in the last six games and have dropped down to tenth. The first two of those losses were to teams outside of the top eight, Zalgiris Kaunas and ALBA, may prove to have done irreparable damage, since they both took place in Belgrade, where they did, however, beat Panathinaikos (78-73, Round 23). If their offense (fifth-worst) will finally start to follow the effort being made in defense (third -best and with the third highest number of steals with 7.2), then better days might come again.
#12 KHIMKI MOSCOW REGION
Previous ranking: 10 (-2)
Record: 10-14
At home: 8-4
Away: 2-10
Offense-Defense: 85.1-86.7
Up until Round 16, Khimki was one of three teams (CSKA Moscow and FC Barcelona are the others) that hadn’t been outside of the top eight at any point. With seven defeats in the last nine games they have tumbled down to 11th place. Ranking fifth in field goal accuracy (48.0%) and third in free throws (81.8%), they may have the fourth -best offense, but they also have the second-worst defense, a ratio that largely explains their form of late.
#11 ZALGIRIS KAUNAS
Previous ranking: 18 (+7)
Record: 9-15
At home: 5-7
Away: 4-8
Offense-Defense: 79.5-78.2
There was a moment when they even were at the bottom of the rankings (Round 15), but those days are long gone for Zalgiris, who has six wins in nine games since then. The downside is that only one of those was over a team from the current top eight (over Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv by 73-68), and they’re in 13th place, two victories behind eighth place. Despite that, the improvement in their game is visible, even if they’re still underperforming on offense (eighth-worst). On the other hand, they’ve never lagged defensively (seventh-best) and that’s why they are the only team outside of the playoff spots that has a positive point differential (+31).
#10 OLYMPIACOS PIRAEUS
Previous ranking: 12 (+2)
Record: 10-14
At home: 7-5
Away: 3-9
Offense-Defense: 81.7-83.4
Olympiacos are trying to find their footing after the return of Georgios Bartzokas to the bench, but defeats by teams outside of the playoff positions – by ALBA in Piraeus, by Zenit in St Petersburg or by Zalgiris in Kaunas – are holding the Reds back. On the other hand, wins like the last one over CSKA at home (72-59) give them hope, at a time when they can no longer rely on the services of Vassilis Spanoulis (out for the rest of the season). Their offense (ninth-worst) and their defense (fourth-worst overall, second-worst with 10.4 three-pointers conceded per game) have yet to be synchronized.