By Panos Katsiroumpas/ info@eurohoops.net
After the analysis of the biggest games of the week in Barcelona and Piraeus we will summarize the most important points of the remaining six games in this 10th week of the Top16.
Laboral Kutxa surely not clutch! This is the 4th game that Baskonia losses in the last minutes even though they had the advantage. After the games against Efes and CSKA in Vitoria (in both they led with double digits) and in Istanbul against Fenerbahce, in Novgorod they lost again after having the lead for biggest part of the game. Suicide!
Darius Adams was great last week against CSKA but in the last 3 minutes against Nizhny he committed two very silly turnovers and gave the opportunity to the Russian team to gain the lead and never look back. The team of Novgorod found a new leader and a surprise player that helped them the most to turn the game. Mekel was impressive in the offensive part and Baburin helped in both ends of the floor. The Israeli guard finished with 20 points and 7 assists, while Baburin added 13 pts, 3 rebounds and 3 steals.
Bad timing for Alba Berlin. In the most important part of the Top16 they face huge injury problems. In the game against Real Madrid they played without Maclean, Hammonds, Tabu and Radosevic.
Charles Jenkins is another player in the TOP 16. He plays also for his teammate Marcus Williams, who doesn’t have the same performances like those in the 1st round. He doubled his numbers in all categories and gives extra quality to the Red Star team.
This was the 3rd game in a row that the defense of Efes was really poor. Bad individual defense, slow rotations and nonexistent depth in the penetrations. Lasme was just a shadow of the defensive monster we see in the majority of the games.
The execution of Efes behind the 3pt line also cost the win. After the 1st period and the early 9 point lead, Efes shot 0/15 3pointers in the following 25 minutes, entering the 4th period with an 8 point deficit to overcome. In the final period they scored 6 in a row, they came back but this was not enough for the Turkish team.
Another great game for Milos Teodosic in both execution and creation. He had great rhythm in offense and his passes were in the best timing for easy executions. In total his numbers were 20 points and 9 assists. The frontcourt of CSKA destroyed their opponents with Kaun, Hines and Vorontsevich performing extremely well in both ends.
Panathinaikos played another very bad 1st half in Kaunas. The Greens did everything wrong in this period. They couldn’t distribute the ball, moreover they were sluggish in defense and didn’t have control of the rebounds.
Even though Pappas and Jankovic scored a lot in the 3rd quarter, this was a different offensive game for the Greens. They played a lot with isolations and limited distribution. In the end the number of only 14 assists (17,3 average in the Top16) supports our argument.
A key part of the game was the creation from the post that Zalgiris took from Jankunas and Ulanovas. They combined for 8 assists, with most of them leading to open shots from the opposite side, especially from Milaknis who scored big time shots in the last 5 minutes.
This was the 1st time that Olimpia Milano played as a team. They finished the game with 22 assists (their average is just 14 in the Top16) with Gentile playing excellent not only in plays created for him but also for his teammates. Brooks, Gentile and Hackett combined together for 14 of the 22 assists.
Highlight of the week: The 3point execution of Goudelock against Olympiacos which pushed his team a huge away win.