By Panos Katsiroumpas/ info@eurohoops.net
The EuroLeague is a third of the way through the season and interest is skyrocketing. The magnifying glass analyzes the most important parts of the two games that took place in Istanbul, but also Efes’s battle in Tel Aviv.
Nunnally the hero. The signing didn’t really make a lot of noise and so far he hasn’t made a big impression. Against Real, though, he was amazing. A team player, he marked all the guards of the Spanish team, he scored the selective shots he took, he passed well, and he was the player that gave his team the win with a free throw. In total, he tallied 18 points (7-for-9 shots), 5 rebounds, and 2 assists.
Accuracy! The main reason that Fenerbahce prevailed is that they targeted Sergio Llull with every weapon they had. Knowing that he’s the player barometer, the home team’s technical team wanted to throw him off rhythm. A lot of pressure, hand checking, good defensive transitions, all combined threw Llull off rhythm. He faced a relay of defenders (Nunnally, Sloukas, Kalinic) and got tired making bad choices. He totaled 10 points with 4-for-14 and 8 assists.
Llull’s loneliness. Aside from the home team’s tough defense, Llull also had to face the shortage of men in the Queen’s guard positions. Doncic was on a bad day, Rudy didn’t do much, Draper was off, and so he tried to take the weight on his shoulders by playing for 35 minutes. In the long term this is going to be a problem for Real.
We didn’t see him again! Othello Hunter stepped on the court at the start of the second quarter and with his consecutive finishes through the pick-and-roll he crushed Fener’s defense, which – up to that point – had been excellent. Twelve points in 6 minutes and then, nothing. The American went back to the bench and when he got in again he wasn’t sought by his teammates.
Maccabi Tel Aviv – Anadolu Efes
Orchestra players! Perasovic is hell bent on making Honeycutt a player similar to Hanga last season in Baskonia. And the American is vindicating him. An excellent defender, and even though opponents challenge him to shoot he doesn’t hesitate. Derrick Brown was good too as he also did everything on the court. Overall, the two of them had 43 points, 20 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 steals, and a ranking of 79, when the rest of the team had 35.
They’re similar to them so they lost. In my opinion, Maccabi lost mainly because they faced a team that is very similar to them. With athletic qualities, an ability to change on every screen in defense without creating mismatches very easily. The home team didn’t get into an offensive rhythm outside of some outbursts and they lost fairly.
To Goudelock or not to Goudelock? An excellent player and an amazing scorer without a doubt, but in Maccabi he probably confounds more than he helps. In the previous 3 games he was either absent, or he played less than Ohayon. In all three games the people’s team won. Against Efes he played 8 minutes longer than the Israeli guard but his team lost. A definite worry for Hadar.
Darussafaka Dogus – Olympiacos
They struck through the center and from the paint! For much of the first half, but then also at intervals, the visitors struck with screens on the ball from the central lane. Darussafaka’s slow centers were having trouble keeping up.
Lojeski and Green. The two of them were the extra boost so that Olympiacos could come up with good runs in the first as well as the second half. Through the Belgian forward they struck with shots from the corners after moving the ball, but also in transition in the home team’s efforts to put pressure through zone pressing. Green made some big shots after creating from the inside out in the fourth quarter of the game.
Defensive gaps. Darussafaka essentially struck in three ways in their own offense. With Clyburn’s isolations, who generally was a headache for Olympiacos’s defense, Wilbekin and Wanamaker’s shots on switching defenses or after screens, and with pick-and-rolls when Birch was not on the court. There was an effort to play from the post mostly with Erden, but Olympiacos’s defense was relatively good in this area.
Creating from the post. Especially in the second half and with Daniel Hackett’s presence on the court, Olympiacos was creative from the post. The ball frequently went to the Italian-American as well as Georgios Printezis, with the two of them having 6 of their team’s 17 assists.