By Panos Katsiroumpas/ info@eurohoops.net
We saw some great games again this week and the Magnifying Glass takes you to Tel Aviv, Piraeus, and Istanbul for three classic derbies of European basketball.
Maccabi Tel Aviv – Barcelona
He killed his former love! Tyrese Rice was back on the court of the team with which he won the EuroLeague in 2014. His outbursts were key factors in the game. He scored big shots, read the defenses, and struck through drives too. He was always there whenever his team had a good run. With 21 points he made the difference in the game.
The Dorsey effect! The American center had perhaps his best game yet with Barcelona. For as long as he was on the court he completely dominated, was a rock in defense, minimizing the impact of Zirbes and Iverson. He provided great help in offense as well, with 11 points, 7 offensive rebounds, and 4 assists.
They targeted Goudelock. An important aspect in the way the game turned out was the excellent defense on Goudelock. Oleson and Koponen did a great job individually, while there was a lot of help coming from everywhere. They didn’t allow him to hurt Barcelona and his points were scored when the game had already been decided. He committed four turnovers and Bartzokas was vindicated for the defensive risk he took.
Teamwork! Even with so many absences, Barcelona looked a lot more like a team. Good ball movement and good shots, even if several were off target. On the other side, selfish play and one or two passes, tops. The same number of assists can be somewhat misleading.
Jackson and Vorontsevich were the key players for CSKA. Milos and De Colo did their own thing, but those two were the risks that Olympiacos’s defense took. They were on a big day in terms of execution, scoring between them 26 points with 5-for-6 in three-point shooting.
The ultimate mismatch. With Young in bad form, Olympiacos staked a lot on Milutinov, who couldn’t do much against Hines. A constant mismatch that CSKA made the most out of and punished to a great degree.
CSKA’s defense had targeted Spanoulis and Printezis. And even if they couldn’t find a solution for the latter – as he was on an unbelievable day, beating even help that arrived or peculiar zone defenses – they did manage to limit the former sufficiently. A lot of pressure, switches on every screen, but also a lot of bodies waiting inside the key. Spanoulis had some outbursts but they weren’t enough, while he also committed seven turnovers.
After a great night in Vitoria, Olympiacos’s supporting cast didn’t play much of a role in the game. Mantzaris, Hackett, Green, Lojeski, Papapetrou and Papanikolaou scored just 22 points with poor percentages, when just a week ago they had murdered Baskonia with 64 points between them.
The game might have been a thriller, gone to extra time twice, and had a thrilling development, but in terms of tactics it seemed slightly like a street game. Very few good team efforts, a direction that was unclear for 50 minutes, and overall the team that won was the one that was a bit more careful at crucial points.
Tyler Honeycutt, the player that suited Panathinaikos’s defense – since he has a mediocre shot which his opponents let him attempt temptingly – but at the same time the player who won a bunch of hustle plays which, in the economy of the game, made a difference. He finished the game with 15 points (5 in the second overtime), 13 rebounds, 4 assists, and no turnovers.
Ioannis Bourousis got more playing time in this game but Efes’s players handled him excellently. With helps but also some good physical contact, they confined him to just 3-for-10 shots, 2 assists, and 4 turnovers. Aside from this, they also hit him hard on the pick-and-roll, especially in the first overtime when all of Efes’s points came from pick-and-rolls.
When Calathes was not on the court, Panathinaikos’s creation was very limited. He had 12 of the team’s 21 assists when all the rest – except for Feldeine – didn’t really see the passes.