By Stefan Djordjevic / info@eurohoops.net
Round 8 of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague featured eight games and what a week it was. A couple of huge convincing wins, a historic win on the road, a display of experience but above all else, a few career nights.
Co-MVPs: Vasilije Micic and Darrun Hilliard
It was a really tough choice this week and in the end, the decision came down to two guards who put on career nights – Vasilije Micic and Darrun Hilliard. Both were stepping up for their teams in the absence of teammates (Shane Larkin and Mike James respectively) and both delivered.
Hilliard was the hero of the night in CSKA’s win against Baskonia as he banked in career-high 31 points including a game-winning three-pointer down the stretch. He shot 5-6 for two and 7-10 for three while he also logged a career-high 32 PIR.
Meanwhile, Micic put on a career-high of his own with 33 points against Panathinaikos, thus handing Efes its first win at OAKA in 14 years. He shot 7-13 for two and 5-7 for three and was it not for his fifth foul with 1:22 remaining, Micic might have brought this performance up even more and perhaps been the sole Eurohoops MVP this week.
Best Five
- Vasilije Micic: Shane Larkin can rest easy.
- Darrun Hilliard: Best is yet to come for this one.
- Kyle Kuric: Barcelona completely demolished Fenerbahce and it was in no small part to Kuric who scored 25 points on 7-8 from deep.
- Vladimir Lucic: Strictly speaking on the PIR number, Lucic should’ve technically been the MVP as he logged 35. He scored 22 points while adding seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals in Bayern’s win over Valencia.
- Trey Thompkins: The least ‘bombastic’ performance of all five but Real Madrid got a tough, hard-earned win on the road against Crvena Zvezda and it was thanks to Thompkins’ 14 points including the two straight threes he banked in crunch time.
Coach of the Week: Xavi Pascual
There were quite a number of coaches deserving of the award this week but Pascual gets our praise simply due to the fact that his team had perhaps the most hardship due to the coronavirus so far.
Zenit had almost a month off without a single game and getting back up from that must be challenging. But Pascual’s squad has been strong. They did lose against Olympiacos last week in their first game back but they already recovered this week with a win over ASVEL on the road.
It wasn’t a pretty affair as the total count was at 119 points (66-53) but a win is a win and Zenit is the only team besides Barcelona – which lost to none other than Zenit itself – that has lost only one game so far. Granted, they played only four games and bigger challenges are yet to come.
Young gun: Alexander Khomenko
CSKA‘s lack of Mike James didn’t only benefit Darrun Hilliard but also one young player in particular. The 21-year-old Alexander Khomenko rarely gets a chance and especially not a ten-minute one. However, coach Dimitris Itoudis decided to give the youngster an opportunity and Khomenko showed that he can become an important piece soon.
He scored seven points with one miss from the field while also drawing five fouls. He showed calmness from the free-throw line and that he can handle himself against the ‘adults’. There were mistakes as well, he turned the ball over twice and there was some insecurity in his ball-handling, stopping the dribble sooner than needed as well as some other details. However, all in all, a very impressive display by the young guard.
Let’s talk fan presence
It’s not some secret and it doesn’t take to be a genius in order to recognize how the lack of packed stands influences the flow of the games and makes the standings that far more uncertain.
And it doesn’t affect the teams the same. And no, not in a sense that some have (limited) fans and some don’t but in a way that certain teams depend more on it than others, especially if that team has a traditionally strong fanbase and is an underdog.
The duel between Crvena Zvezda and Real Madrid might have been the perfect example of that. The hosts started off with huge energy in Belgrade, playing aggressive on both sides, running, hitting shot after shot. A team goes up 21-8, a team hits the three at the buzzer to end the quarter. The best player on the team banks in a step-back three from the side.
Those things make the crowd go berserk, especially a crowd such as Crvena Zvezda‘s, and in return that energy from the crowd will lift up the squad to a whole new level while making it harder for the opposing team to communicate with the coach and bounce back up.
The 13-point lead could have easily been 20+ very quickly with that momentum. Instead, Real Madrid, a team with perhaps the most experienced players and arguably the strongest mentality in EuroLeague, has all the silence in the world to get it together and find their rhythm. Bring the game down to the wire and snatch it with a few tough moves that not many can pull off.