By Panos Katsiroubas/ info@eurohoops.net
The big and traditional derbies were missing from this week’s menu, so the Magnifying Glass focuses on three rather intriguing games. For different reasons each.
Olimpia Armani Milano – CSKA Moscow
No Milos, no Nando, no problem. So what if the Russian team’s two big aces were absent? After a balanced half, CSKA played great and devastated Milano. The central lane was one of the three key positions. Jackson, Higgins, and Kulagin created from the middle after screens on the ball and dispatched balls out to the corners for open shots.
Spacing! Itoudis’s team excelled in this area, especially in the second half. The split out passes ended up in the corners either immediately, or through intermediate passes, creating a lot of open shots in a team that is full of good shooters. The visitors had 8-for-12 in three-point shooting from the corners, showing once more how important good spacing is in modern basketball.
Defense! Of course, the offense cannot win the game on its own. Everything started from the Russian’s possessed defense in the third quarter. And if the home team missed some easy shots in the beginning, after a certain point the defense smothered them. The pressure was relentless, the switches didn’t provide Milan with any advantages, and CSKA widened the gap more and more.
A very bad picture. After a good first half where Milan were able to find some solutions, in the second they lost their orientation offensively. Hasty choices, bad spacing, poor execution, and in general, bad reading of the game, made up a very bad picture. The mere 26 points is the number that says it all.
Real Madrid – Zalgiris Kaunas
Boy wonder! No matter what happened in the game, in the end it was the amazing teenager, Luka Doncic, who stole the show. With the score being tied at 86-86, he undertook two attacks that looked like they weren’t going to lead anywhere, flummoxed Westermann and executed with the defender stuck on him. He’d done so once more in the third quarter, but the importance of these kinds of shots is different when the ball is hot. The win is mainly due to him.
Rudy’s help. Without many options in Real’s backcourt, Rudy Fernandez has largely taken over the team’s creation. He sets up plays, he reads well, he passes even better, and he helps his team in more areas. In the games against Fenerbahce and Zalgiris he had 16 assists and only one turnover. Truly impressive.
Well done Saras. Zalgiris’s image shows a team that is well prepared and that tries to strike through their strong points. This is definitely the work of coach Jasikevicius, who is feeling out his team, trying out different line-ups and different players. Against Real, after the 25th minute, he chose small line-ups with Ulanovas, Jankunas, and Motum alternating among the big men, but also playing together in the same line-up. They’re all good playing with their back against and facing the basket, while they open up the court and the spacing with their good shooting ability. They turned the game around from 71-62 to 83-83 and gave in only when Doncic made his big shots.
Anadolu Efes – Barcelona
Bad game, amazing ending. The game in Abdi Ipekci arena wasn’t pretty, for most of the game we saw both teams make bad choices, being hasty. In the end, we saw some successive wild plays deciding the game. Consecutive three-pointers by Doellman and Rice gave Barcelona the lead, while Dunston, with an offensive rebound, as well as a basket and a foul, gave his team the win.
Beautiful and fateful. Barcelona managed to turn the game around mostly thanks to Tyrese Rice, but he was also the fateful one in the end. He made big shots, while he attacked the paint whenever he saw open lanes, which he read well. He also did a good job in terms of creation with his excellent split out passes that resulted in several open shots. But while he had skillfully freed himself from his opponent, he missed the winning shot in the last attack.
They struck on Tomic. Most of Efes’s attacks sought to strike on Ante Tomic’s defensive weakness. Constant screens on the ball wore out the Croatian big man, who couldn’t mark Granger and Heurtel on the switches. The two of them made many shots in front of the Croatian’s outstretched arms. Between them, they scored 30 of their team’s 72 points.