By Panos Katsiroybas/ info@eurohoops.net
The Magnifying Glass focuses its attention on all the courts of Turkish Airlines Euroleague and each week examines through its basketball lens some of the games that stole the show in Europe’s top competition!
Bamberg killed Olympiacos
What a game we witnessed in the Brose Arena. A game that was decided by one shot in the final seconds. The shot that Janis Strelnieks took essentially killed Olympiacos Piraeus in a final minute about which a lot can be said. The only thing that’s certain is that Brose Baskets Bamberg executed their last play to perfection. A play that started with Strelnieks at the top, moving towards the corner. Bradley Wanamaker went towards the opposite side and received a screen from Nikos Zisis, a guards-only screen that we’ve seen many times being executed by Bamberg. On the defense’s switch, Wanamaker passed to Strelnieks on the weak side, who was screened by Daniel Theis along the wing, thereby escaping from Vassilis Spanoulis. Strelnieks was wide open and his shot from the corner was perfect, giving his team the win. The last play was one that had been repeated many times throughout the game.
Bamberg worked amazingly well on the offensive half of the court: amazing movement without the ball, lots of screens, and great use of every centimeter on the court. And that despite the Olympiacos defense dealing with the pick-and-roll well enough, sending help from the weak side after the offensive hedge outs on the ball. Bamberg’s big men passed the ball quite well. The home team’s ball circulation was quite good except for during the first 7 or 8 minutes of the second half. Overall, Bamberg had 21 assists – three more than Olympiacos – in a game in which the home team had 12 fewer possessions. That was due to the fact that Olympiacos had more offensive rebounds, by 15 to 8, and committed fewer turnovers, 4 versus 9. To win with so many fewer possessions means that Bamberg did a good job both on offense and defense. Olympiacos played monotonously. Almost every play, especially when Spanoulis was on the court, was a pick-and-roll, albeit with different variations. Bamberg’s defense of the pick-and-roll wasn’t so good, with Olympiacos scoring often in a two-on-two game as Spanoulis passed to Othello Hunter several times.
Georgios Printezis also had a great game, with weak-side shots and good post moves. Aside from these three players, however, Olympiacos couldn’t come up with any other solutions. Olympiacos’s best spell, in the third quarter, came not from set plays, but rather when its defense sparked transition scoring opportunities. Overall, the visitors got trapped in their own game plan. A lot has been said regarding the decision of the Olympiacos players not to foul on the last attack, as head coach Giannis Sfairopoulos had instructed. If they had, the worst-case scenario would have been possession of the ball with the score tied and about 10 seconds left. Judging from the outcome, the decision was wrong and, as we know, every decision is judged but its outcome. With this result, Bamberg stayed alive and Olympiacos was pushed closer to the edge of the cliff.
First-place win for Fenerbahce!
A great game took place in Krasnodar, with the winning team laying the groundwork for clinching the top spot of the group. In a game that had a lot of intensity and was very tough, Fenerbahce Istanbul managed to get the win that equals first place. In this game, perhaps the two most flexible teams of the competition battled each other. Which means that we saw continuous switching defenses and the opening up of spacing on most attacks. The team that won was the one that was slightly more accurate and took better advantage of the mismatches created by constant switches on defense. Fenerbahce’s first objective was to protect the lane from penetration by Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar’s guards – Malcolm Delaney, mostly – and it’s second was to deny the home team’s big men access to the paint after ball screens. In both, Fenerbahce was almost excellent, with the lane being protected by three or four defenders in many instances, forcing Lokomotiv into perimeter passes.
Big men Anthony Randolph and Chris Singleton took most of their shots from the perimeter, where as a team Lokomotiv made just 6 for 30 three-pointers. Lokomotiv looked disorganized, lacking good ball circulation and executing poorly. In the first half, Lokomotiv made just 4 assists on 25 points and 11-for-32 shooting – and there wasn’t much improvement in the second half. Its total of 9 assists was Lokomotiv’s worst all season. Delaney finished the game with 3-for-15 shooting and 4 turnovers, which demonstrates the defensive success of Zeljko Obradovic‘s team. On the other side, Fenerbahce had the good fortune of always having a player providing a push at different points throughout the game.
In the second quarter it was Ricky Hickman, who scored on the switches. Then it was Luigi Datome‘s turn, as he hit some great shots. Then, in the end, Bogdan Bogdanovic spoke, scoring big shots off screens or one-on-one. Of course, we have to mention the amazing defense that Jan Vesely played on switches, which partly decided the game but is not reflected in statistics. Lokomotiv are now in a tough situation trying to remain in the top two spots, and next week travels to Athens for a big game against Panathinaikos Athens.
Unstoppable Laboral Kutxa
We had a great game at Fernando Buesa Arena between Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz and Khimki Moscow Region. By playing some amazing defense after halftime, the home team prevailed easily in the end to stay in the top two playoff spots in Group F. The game had two sides: a close first half and Laboral’s complete domination in the second. In the opening 20 minutes, Khimki played with a lot of common sense, attacked through its pick-and-roll and scoring inside with Paul Davis receiving in most instances. In this period, Tyrese Rice and Alexey Shved had a total of 13 assists by striking at poorly positioned guards and big men for the home team. Laboral mostly attacked in transition, with Adam Hanga standing out. Ioannis Bourousis added another 10 points scoring from the perimeter, where Khimki’s defense chose to give him shooting space.
In the second half, the game changed completely due to the improved defense of Velimir Perasovic‘s team. Through that defense, Laboral found a very good offensive rhythm, too, both in transition and the halfcourt five-on-five game. Mike James and Darius Adams constantly created openings and either finished plays themselves or found teammates on the perimeter for open shots, with Jaka Blazic, Fabien Causeur and Davis Bertans hitting high percentages. The home team finished the game having made an excellent 12 of 25 three-pointers. Once again, Bourousis did a great job on all levels, as he passed amazingly well, whether to teammates cutting inside or waiting on the weak side for open shots. He had a team-high 6 assists to go with his 16 points and 13 rebounds.
For the third game in four, Khimki conceded more than 95 points and showed huge defensive weaknesses. The gap reached 20 points midway through the fourth quarter. Laboral managed to cover the difference of its earlier defeat to Khimki in Moscow and gained an advantage in the event of a tie between them in the standings. What’s also interesting is that, despite what became an easy win, Laboral had just 15 assists and 17 turnovers, when Khimki had 20 assists and 9 turnovers. That shows that Laboral has even more room for improvement on offense.
Justin Doellman, Mr. Clutch!
What an unbelievable game passed before our eyes at Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona! It was a real advertisement for the Euroleague, with a finale that no one could have imagined. Barcelona got an incredible – not to mention unexpected – win after the miraculous way in which the game unfolded in the fourth quarter and overtime. Overall, it was a game in which tactics, after a certain point, were put aside and passion, talent and heart decided it. For the first time this year, Xavier Pascual’s players stepped on the court determined to play up-tempo offense and go for fastbreaks and transition offense at every opportunity. Not only did they plan this, but they also carried it off, with Tomas Satoransky heading the effort with a great game for him.
The Czech guard set his personal best in terms of productivity in the competition, finishing the game with 19 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. He also played some great defense and set a high pace at every opportunity, especially in the first half, since in the second he was forgotten on the bench for quite a while. The home team got the ball to Ante Tomic close to the basket, who, after some time, had a truly great game. Barcelona also had excellent percentages from the perimeter in the first half, making 8 of 15 three-pointers. What the hosts had to show for this was a nie-point lead at halftime, having taking full advantage of CSKA Moscow‘s numerous turnovers in the second quarter. In the second half, CSKA returned determined to get back in the game, with the explosive duo of Milos Teodosic and Nando De Colo taking action. The difference compared to previous games was that both took many shot attempts and didn’t pass on many occasions when they could have created better opportunities. For the first time this season, their assist-to-turnover ratio was not positive: they had the same 9 turnovers as assists. Both were on target scoring, however, combining for 53 points while making 17 of 31 field goals.
In the fourth quarter, the X factor that answers to the name Andrey Vorontsevich made his appearance for CSKA, downing big shots from the perimeter as the visitors opened up their spacing perfectly. He scored 15 points and had a good defensive presence, as well. Some shots made by Carlos Arroyo without the ball even changing hands on offense brought Barcelona within striking distance, and from that point on the game became completely wild. CSKA, perhaps keeping in mind what happened to Olympiacos against Bamberg, chose to foul on the last possession of the fourth quarter, giving Barcelona the opportunity to tie the game, which Satoransky was happy to do with 2 free throws. From that point on, any game plans were thrown aside and it was the heart that spoke. The visitors seemed like they had the lead but not the clear head to foul again when they still had a three-point lead with 10 seconds left. Pascual chose a small line-up, with Justin Doellman at the “5” position, and he was vindicated.
With a fake screen, the American forward gained some space with Arroyo passing him the ball immediately, and before his opponents had time to foul him, he drilled a shot from 7.5 meters for the tie. But the drama did not end there. As the game resumed with 4.5 seconds on the clock, Teodosic completed CSKA’s poor choices in the final minute of overtime with a bad pass that came as a gift into the hands of Doellman, who scored the winning shot. If Barcelona manages to qualify, they will owe it – to a very large extent – to Doellman, since this was the second winning buzzer-beater that he scores, after the one in the Spanish capital against Real Madrid, in this Top 16.