By Panos Katsiroumpas/ info@eurohoops.net
The magnifying Glass focuses its attention on all the European courts and each week it will choose to examine through its basketball lens some of the games that stole the show in the top competition! The MG focuses on 5 Turkish Airlines Euroleague battles of this week and here you can also enjoy the analysis of Thursday’s Win of Panathinaikos Athens over Pinar Karsiyaka!
Ten minutes were enough
The second round of the Euroleague Regular Season opened with the battle between Anadolu Efes Istanbul and EA7 Emporio Armani Milan. Dusan Ivkovic’s team prevailed after an excellent fourth quarter: in this period, Efes managed to tighten up its defense and, in particular, protect the middle. Efes trapped and restricted Alessandro Gentile, who had done so much damage in the first three quarters, when he scored 20 of his 22 total points. Overall, Milan stayed close for 30 minutes, mostly because of good offense, a good transition game, taking advantage of mismatches – mostly with Milan Macvan – and offensive rebounds that were worth several second-chance points. The Efes defense during those first 30 minutes should raise some concerns for Ivkovic.
On offense, Efes had some good passing and kept good spacing, with Dario Saric functioning properly and taking advantage of Milan’s inability to keep up with him away from the basket or to deal with his speed. Also, we saw Thomas Heurtel and Jayson Granger playing in the same line-up for long periods. Their simultaneous presence provided Efes with good facilitating and reading of plays, and spread out the offense in a way that let Jon Diebler thrive. In the final quarter, the Turks had a 20-5 run and turned a 69-68 scoreboard into an 89-73 win. Heurtel and Granger had 16 assists between them. In the end, their presence made the difference and gave Efes the victory.
You can’t win without defense
For the second game in a row, Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv were disheartened by suffering what was, for many, an unexpected defeat at the hands of Unicaja Malaga. After the 100 points that Guy Goodes’s team conceded in Moscow a week ago, Maccabi easily conceded another 93 at home. The problem in this area seems to be collective but also individual as well. No Maccabi player was fully concentrated on the defensive end, with the rotations proving slow and ineffective. Unicaja scored with ease in a variety of ways: with pick-and-roll plays, with isolations, in the post, in transition and through their reading of mismatches. Unicaja had some excellent passing, too, with 26 assists.
Six of those were dished by Richard Hendrix, which is a personal best for him in the competition. This fact reveals the size of the empty spaces that Maccabi’s defense had, with the American center creating plays after receiving the ball on pick-and-rolls. For yet another game, Mindaugas Kuzminskas was amazing, with 23 points in less than 21 minutes of playing time, making 9 of 11 shots! He has improved a lot in all areas of the game and is very important for his team. Nemanja Nedovic and Jamar Smith also provided solutions from the perimeter for Unicaja, with the former stringing together points in the third quarter and the latter threatening constantly after screens away from the ball and executions from the wings. Aside from its obvious shortcomings on defense, Maccabi needs to improve collaborations on offense too. The team play with a lot of individualism and, except for Taylor Rochestie and Jordan Farmar, the rest of the players all shared just 3 assists – half of Hendrix‘s total alone.
Bayern boosts its aspirations
Thursday marked an amazing performance by FC Bayern Munich for a win over Khimki Moscow Region, which was coming off its big, opening-round victory against Real Madrid. Bayern’s win came as a result of terrific defense and excellent reading of the game by Svetislav Pesic’s players on offense. In the first half, Bayern played great on defense, protected the key from penetrations and struck in transition on every opportunity, with Alex Renfroe, K. C. Rivers and Nihad Djedovic as the main forces. Rimas Kurtinaitis’s players appeared unprepared on defense. Bayern struck at every mismatches and slow defensive rotation by Khimki. The home team neutralized Tyrese Rice, forcing him to take tough shots and make several mistakes.
Tellingly, Rice finished the game with only 11 points, making just 4 of 16 shots and committing 3 turnovers in addition to 6 assists. The hedge-outs from Bayern’s big men and particularly from Deon Thompson made it really tough for Khimki to circulate the ball and stretched out the distances between their players. In the second half Khimki improved its defense but couldn’t find a rhythm on offense. The deficit remained in the 10-point range and Pesic’s players scored some baskets that hurt their opponents psychologically, knocking them down every time Khimki attempted to close the gap. It was a win that heightened aspirations for the Top 16 in a Bayern Munich team that is clearly better than last season.
On fire
It was a walk in the park for CSKA Moscow against Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari on the road Friday. Dimitris Itoudis’s team struggled for a mere 10 minutes, during which Romeo Sacchetti’s players ran the open court and pressed the ball, making 4 steals and scoring with ease. After the first quarter finished 26-25, CSKA controlled its possessions and read all the weaknesses of Sassari’s defense. With a 15-35 second quarter surge, the Russians ran away with a 19-point lead in half-time.
Thanks to some amazing ball movement and passing, the visitors had 17 assists in 20 minutes. For yet another game, CSKA ’s axis of creation was made up of its explosive guard trio: Aaron Jackson, Milos Teodosic and Nando De Colo collaborated to produce 40 points and 20 assists. In the second half, Sassari wasn’t able to threaten and CSKA scored 107 points with ease. It now has the best offense in the league after two games, with an average of 103.5 points. Sassari is an athletic team with talent on offense, but in this game they didn’t have any defensive plan to deal with CSKA’s backcourt. Short and versatile line-ups seem to suit Dimitris Itoudis’s team, which played with Kyle Hines at center for a long while. Cory Higgins, Demetris Nichols and Hines did an excellent job on defense and offense and look like they’re going to have a big role in CSKA’s journey this year.
Thriller in Vitoria
The thriller of the week saw Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz prevailing in overtime after a dramatic battle with Olympiacos Piraeus. The game was played at the tempo that Velimir Perasovic’s team loves to play. Especially in the first half, Laboral attacked in transition, had a lot of movement without the ball, ran plays that pierced Olympiacos’s defense and scored with ease. The ball was in the post frequently and Ioannis Bourousis either scored or passed for open shots from the weak side. Olympiacos had a problem creating plays with the only axis being Vassilis Spanoulis, who had 7 of his team’s 10 assists of the first half. Laboral kept up its crazy rhythm until minute 27, extending the lead to double digits through Bourousis.
The Greek center had the best night of his career with Euroleague personal bests of 28 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists, without making a single turnover. Olympiacos got a bit closer in the fourth quarter, improving its defense by pressing on the ball and denying passes inside the paint. The visitors also closed down passing lanes and protected the key from drives by Laboral players. On the offensive end, Matt Lojeski was hot, marking a Euroleague career best with 28 points on 6-for-7 three-point shooting, shots he made following off-the-ball screens and often well defended by Perasovic’s players.
With their defense, Laboral blocked Spanoulis, who, after a certain point, made several turnovers. Adam Hanga and Fabien Causeur did a great job defending him, forcing Spanoulis to commit 4 turnovers and some bad choices, like the last shot in regular time. In overtime, Laboral made better choices and with some great shots by Mike James and Adam Hanga extended the lead, as Olympiacos threatened only with Vangelis Mantzaris. Overall, a great win for the Basques who were missing Davis Bertans and Tornike Shengelia as well.