By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
It’s not a secret that this season’s EuroLeague is going to be the most competitve ever due to the new format and that’s proven just after two weeks of action. Only four teams, CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid, EA7 Emporio Armani Milano and Fenerbahce are still unbeaten and so far there’s nothing easy for anyone.
Here are the full standings and here’s our MVP.
MVP
Marko Simonovic
He made big shots, registered a career high and ended the game with 23 points in the big road win of Crvena Zvezda in Istanbul against Galatasaray. Thanks to him Crvena Zvezda was able to steal the game in the end, exactly the same way they were beaten at home last week by Dogus Darussafaka.
Best Five
- Nikos Zisis: The “computer” had one of his best games ever in Brose Bamberg narrow win over Unics Kazan with 16 points and 12 assists, one short of his personal best in Euroleague.
- Vasilis Spanoulis: The best man of Zisis had a similar game with him as Olympiacos destroyed Anadolu Efes. That translated to 17 points, 9 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 turnovers on the game he surpassed the 3.000 points milestone.
- Marko Simonovic: The Rio silver medalist left his mark on a great win.
- Andrey Vorontsevich: With Panathinaikos proving feisty, the forward of CSKA Moscow had 20 points and 5 out of 6 threes to keep things under control.
- Milan Macvan: His vintage performance for Milano against Dogus Darussafaka reminded his days in the junior Serbian national team, when he was dominating Europe. He had 19 points on 3/3 threes, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 turnovers.
Best losing performance: Austin Daye
He had his best game in Europe so far but it was not enough. He had 24 points and 8 rebounds for Galatasaray, still he couldn’t close the game the right way. If he had done that, then he would be part of the best five.
Coach of the week: Sarunas Jasikevicius
Yes, Leo Westermann had his break out game (20 p., 4 as.) and no turnovers but you can’t but give credit to Sarunas Jasikevicius for the big win of Zalgiris Kaunas against Baskonia. On paper, Zalgiris is the weakest team of the league, still Saras found the way to inject his fighting spirit to his players. They tried until the end to get the road win against Panathinaikos last win and this time they got it.
Biggest wins: Real Madrid and Fenerbahce
Two of the main title contenders got a similar scenario on their hands and they prevailed. They got two road wins on two of the toughests courts in Europe, Tel Aviv and Barcelona, in order to remain perfect on top of the standings. As they say “well begun is half done”.
Last word: It doesn’t look good, but it tastes fantastic
The best confession ever by any coach…