By Panos Katsiroumpas/ info@eurohoops.net
In this week’s Magnifying Glass you were able to read the analysis of the big games in Athens and Milano. In this section we will mention the most important facts of the rest 6 games that took part in the 9th week of the Top 16.
- With the absence of McLean Alba needed another player to step up. Reggie Redding was the man. He played one of his best games and led his team to a great victory. 27 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists was the sum of his tremendous performance.
- The fall of Zalgiris in the Top16 has a name. James Anderson is not as effective as he was in the regular season and his numbers prove that decline. In the regular season his averages were 17 pts with 41% in FG, 5.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and only 1.8 turnovers. In the Top16 the decline is obvious: 11.4 pts with 36% in FG, 4.3 rebounds, 2 assists and 1.8 turnovers per game.
- The start of the 2nd quarter was the key for Fenerbahce. They played great defense, they ran in the transition, they executed well and they scored many easy points. In less than 7 minutes they had a partial score of 26-3 and took a 20 pt. advantage (from 16-17 to 42-20). Hickman was again a factor in this great run
- Nizhny couldn’t overcome in any way the absences of Kinsey and especially Parakhouski. They lost the rebounding battle and also didn’t have the effective pick ‘n’ roll combo with Rochestie creating and Parakhouski executing. This explains why Rochestie finished the game only with 2 assists when he averages almost 7 in the Top16
- The transition defense of CSKA was terrible in the first 15 minutes in Vitoria. The Russian team felt behind with a 15 point deficit with Laboral Kutxa scoring 37 points in 15 minutes.
- Baskonia has a very strange statistic in the Top16. They are one of the best offensive teams in the competition and one of the lowest in the assists average. They score almost 82 points with only 13 assists per game. This statistic shows that more than 60% of the point production comes from individual plays. Against CSKA they scored 74 pts with only 8 assists. INCREDIBLE!!
- CSKA won the game in the end with a very flexible squad in the court with Korobkov and Kirilenko in the center and power forward position. This is not the first time coach Itoudis has this tactical approach. We have seen it also with Vorontsevich and Korobkov in previous games
- Red Star played like the first round team for the first time in the Top16. In the last period against Maccabi they became very physical, they played great in defense and scored big points in transition. Marjanovic and Williams also reminded everybody what they are capable of doing. 19 pts and 17 rebounds for giant Boban and 17 pts, 7 rebounds and 5 assists for Williams.
- Maccabi needs Sofoklis if they want to achieve something big again this year. His limited presence on the court against Red Star offered the opportunity to Marjanovic to have a party in the paint in both ends.
- It is very sad to see a team like Galatasaray having all these problems that makes them unable to be competitive in the top level. Real Madrid got one of their easiest road wins.
- HUGE GAME in Malaga! Ryan Toolson is back on the pick of his game. In 7 Top16 contest he had scored 46 points and against Efes he scored 25 with the buzzer beater game winning three!
- Malaga played excellent in offense. They scored in almost every miss match and punished all the weaknesses of the Turkish defense. Golubovic, Kuzminskas, Gabriel all of them contributed the most and were good supporting cast for Toolson.
- With Heurtel on the team, the offensive game of Efes is way better than in the 1st group phase but something wrong is happening in terms of defense. This is the 3rd game in 9 matches that Efes plays very bad in defense. After the 109 points of Nizhny and the 87 of Baskonia last week, Malaga scored 93 to force their 5th defeat in 9 games.
- Highlights of the week! 1) The unbelievable 3pt buzzer beater from Ryan Toolson. 2) The new haircut of Linas Kleiza!