By Panos Katsiroubas/ info@eurohoops.net
The Magnifying Glass focuses its attention on all the courts of Turkish Airlines Euroleague and each week examines through its basketball lens some of the games that stole the show in Europe’s top competition!
Imposing CSKA Moscow with De Colo’s return
They say that usually the beginning is half the battle, but this didn’t really apply in the case of the game in Moscow between CSKA Moscow and Brose Baskets Bamberg. The visitors started out the game with a 0-10 run, found the target on the first 6 shots that they attempted, and showed that they can be a worthy opponent for CSKA. After the initial numbness, Dimitrios Itoudis’s players played total basketball and dominated on both sides of the court. Once again, the duo of Milos Teodosic and Nando De Colo, who came back from an injury, made the difference. Starting most of their plays from the top of the key in a two-on-two game, and with the rest of their teammates spread out along the wings and in the corners, they struck at defensive switches and took advantage of every lane that opened up towards the basket after screens on the ball. On many occasions, not even the screens were necessary, especially when the French guard set up the attack, went to a clear isolation game and finished plays either with shots from the perimeter or from mid-range.
Aside from CSKA’s two stars, an important role in the 55-24 run that the Russian team produced, after the initial 0-10, was played by two so-called role players who are necessary to how Itoudis has built his team. These are Kyle Hines and Nikita Kurbanov, who do very important work on both ends of the court. The American center was once again a catalyst with his pick-and-roll defense, with his fast recoveries to guard the paint. In addition, his screens on offense are so dynamic that they provide the short time his teammates need to execute from the perimeter. Also, they often force the defense to switch, which, as the play develops, create mismatches that his team has the talent, the perception and the quality to read and punish. On the other side, Kurbanov often undertakes kamikaze roles in man-to-man defenses, marking the best rival guards. Moreover, in the adjustment zones that CSKA often plays he is positioned at the top as he has the strength and the body to break screens on the ball, while he is excellent in the department of team defense, in back-ups and rebounds.
Against Bamberg he had 9 points and 10 rebounds but also contributed in all those areas just mentioned. As for the offensive variety that CSKA presents, we have to add the good screens in empty spaces and in the gaps of the defense from the wing players. We saw it happening several times again and providing many points for the home team. Overall, it was one more full offensive game from the home team, who, on a good day, looks like a well-prepared orchestra. In the second half, they maintained the gap at the same levels and were almost never threatened by Bamberg, easily getting their third win in the group.
Madrid prevail in the rematch of the final
Eight months after last year’s final, Real Madrid and Olympiacos Piraeus faced each other again at the Barclaycard Center in Madrid. As then, the home team managed to get a very important win after last week’s mishap against FC Barcelona Lassa. In the opening 15 minutes, the game flowed in the rhythm Olympiacos likes to play, with tough defenses and limited scoring from both teams. The return of Matt Lojeski initially provided solutions in the transition game but from the perimeter as well. Olympiacos‘s defense was rather tough, with the offensive hedge-outs not allowing Madrid’s explosive perimeter enough space and time to act. Of course, the defense on Vassilis Spanoulis by Madrid was excellent as well. Through double-teaming, they shut off his favorite central lane and forced him out to the sides. He couldn’t pass the ball quickly and so the attack was essentially delayed without circulation, and ended up with bad choices and shots put up under difficult circumstances.
In the second quarter, Madrid’s bench made the difference with Felipe Reyes and Jaycee Carroll being the catalysts. The American guard, with the prowess in execution he possesses, forced the defense to adjust to him, with switches in every screen he got. As a result of this, mismatches were created after the switches, with the home team reading them and getting points mostly from inside the paint. Aside from this, because of the defensive imbalance of Olympiacos, the home team renewed many attacks with offensive rebounds and scored second-chance points, with Reyes dominating in these kinds of situations. At halftime, Madrid found themselves ahead 41-35 after having been behind 29-33 for an eight-point swing that got then in a positive frame of mind. The hosts really found their rhythm in the second half, even if it was often with last-ditch shots that we’ve seen Sergio Rodriguez and Sergio Llull make many times in the past. That pair scored 5 three-pointers that essentially killed any attempt by Olympiacos to react.
And if their first half shots weren’t under any tremendous pressure from the defense, because the shooter was well beyond the three-point arc, the last ones were shots that the defense went after and couldn’t do anything more. Madrid reached a 19-point lead and had completely trapped Spanoulis, who finished the game with just 1 point on 0-for-6 shooting and 3 turnovers. He drew 9 fouls, a number that is indicative of the home team’s defensive rationale, which was not to allow him anything easy. If we add to this the minimum threat that the visitors posed from the post, with Georgios Printezis also being on a bad day – with 5 points on 2-for-8 shooting – then we have the full picture of the game. Madrid clearly targeted these two players and accomplished the goal they had set. The rest of the players provided solutions, but could not win the game without additional help from Printezis and Spanoulis. Olympiacos’s defense won some individual battles, but didn’t do so with any kind of consistency, which the home team’s 84 points prove. This was a victory-breath for Madrid, while Olympiacos is now entering a period of concern after their third defeat in a row.
Depth and experience gave Efes the win
In a game that was in pure attacking mode for 30 minutes, Anadolu Efes Istanbul managed to get a big away win against Unicaja Malaga. A win that is, firstly, attributable to the depth of Dusan Ivkovic’s team, and secondly, to experience. Both teams presented a bad defensive image early, bad pick-and-roll defense with slow recoveries by the big men and slow defensive transitions, as well. That should be of concern to both coaches because if their teams don’t improve in those aspects, qualification to the playoffs will be difficult. For Unicaja, Richard Hendrix struck on the pick-and-roll a lot, scoring inside with consistency and stability. When the defense sent back-ups in the paint, Unicaja circulated the ball well and with Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Carlos Suarez getting several points from the perimeter but also through penetrations to the basket after Efes‘s quite poor rotations. On offense, the visitors worked much better, especially through pick-and-rolls and passes to the weak side, as Jayson Granger was very effective against his old team.
Also, screens along the wings produced open shots for the shooters, who scored with excellent percentages. Its 12-for-25 three-point shooting was one of the two reasons Efes prevailed. The second was its good defense in the last quarter, holding Unicaja to just 9 points. Of course, the defensive aspect is just half the story, with the other half being Unicaja’s lack of solutions. With Stefan Markovic at the edge of the bench with an injury, and Jamar Smith also absent, Unicaja’s creativity was limited. DeMarcus Nelson passes less and is not a mid- or long-range shooting. Smith’s absence deprived Unicaja of good shooting but also an isolation game. In the final minutes, coach Joan Plaza chose to leave Kuzminskas on the bench, a player who had a consistently good offensive presence, and so the solutions were limited to a minimum.
In the final 5 minutes, Unicaja didn’t score a single point after attacks that were too slow in terms of thinking, moving and decision-making. Most shots were desperation shots, with the visitors closing out the game with a 9-0 run, in the end winning by double digits. The overall picture, however, is of two teams for whom improvement is deemed essential.
A huge away win for Laboral Kutxa
The Spanish battle between FC Barcelona Lassa and Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz turned into a thriller that broke some hearts, with the win going one way and the other multiple times at the end. In the end, it was won by the team that had greater consistency throughout the 45 minutes, a more steady direction on both ends of the court. Laboral generally was more satisfying to the eye of the neutral viewer and its weapon for yet another week was excellent defense. Barcelona at home scored almost 85 points on average, but after the opening 30 minutes on Friday had just 44. This was due to the excellent individual and team defense of the visitors, who didn’t allow easy points on the open court, frequently broke up screens by Barca’s big men and denied the hosts’ backcourt players any room in which to act.
The speed of Adam Hanga, Fabien Causeur and Jaka Blazic quickly covered any defensive gaps, providing good back-ups and deflecting several passes heading towards the wings. Barcelona generally lost offensive rhythm and couldn’t create promising shots. Velimir Perasovic‘s team even got an 11-point lead in the third quarter, with Ioannis Bourousis creating problems for Barcelona’s defense in every possible way. He shot from the perimeter following a pop-out, took the ball all the way to the basket whenever he got the chance, and was excellent finishing in the post, too. Barcelona tried to handle him with single coverage, but it didn’t work. On the few occasions that he was double-teamed, Bourousis read the situation well, sending the passes out to the perimeter for open shots. The outcome of his latest rhapsody was 24 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and no turnovers. In the fourth quarter, Barcelona turned the game around by going against its own team philosophy of complex, five-on-five plays with lot of screens.
Now, the ball went to Alex Abrines, who essentially played an isolation game and hit big shots despite good defense by Hanga and Causeur. The young Spaniard scored 17 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter and in overtime. Outside of Abrines, in order to turn the game around, the home team pressed hard on defense, with Tomas Satoransky and Shane Lawal as the main axes. Their aggressiveness made it hard for Laboral to circulate the ball and several of their steals led to easy baskets. On the last play in regular time, Barcelona couldn’t foul in order to protect its three-point lead and an offensive rebound led to Darius Adams’s three-pointer and overtime.
There, Laboral was better at opening up spaces with screens on the ball that freed Adams to attack for big baskets. At the end of overtime, the home team tried shorter lineups – as they did in Madrid last week – and got a shot on target by Aleksandar Vezenkov, but the next one by Pau Ribas missed. At that point, Laboral didn’t foul in order to protect its own three-point lead, but wasn’t punished for that. Laboral’s win places the team squarely in the playoffs race in a group where any kind of prediction is not advised.