By Panos Katsiroubas info@eurohoops.net
A huge week has passed in Euroleague with new records, big wins and teams that put themselves into difficult position. And now it’s time to get a closer look to all the action of the European courts the last two days.
Red attack!
In Group D everything went Red this week. The title is Red attack but if we want to characterize the wins of Olympiacos and Red Star maybe the best word is DEFENSE! The transformation of Olympiacos in this part is impressive during the last two games. The Reds from Piraeus use their defense as the biggest weapon in order to take prisoners their opponents. First of all they try to press on the ball as much as they can. We saw plays against Galatasaray in which the Reds made steals from the pressure on the ball even after the first one or two passes. Darden and Katsivelis had a huge impact because they are players who can press very effectively. Moreover Olympiacos uses attacking defense in pick and roll plays.
They tried to hedge out in almost every pick and roll because they are quick and didn’t let Arroyo play his game and get his teammates involved. This had as a result only 9 assists for the visitors (they averaged 17 per game) and many problems in the ball movement.
The offensive game of Olympiacos was also differentiated, mainly in how many passes after pick and rolls aimed for the paint. The guards tried to play the pick and roll with the forwards and the centers more times than the previous games. The centers of Galatasaray with the exception of Aldemir are not that quick and Olympiacos got all the advantages of that situation, scoring in the paint more than any other game. They also found many open passes to the weak side, that lead to easy shots from the perimeter, a defensive detail in which Galatasaray faced huge problems against Olympiacos. This transformation led to a record night for Olympiacos in both assists (26) and turnovers (6).
We can say more or less the same for Red Star. The put unbelievable pressure on the ball especially when Heurtel was on the floor, causing huge problems to Baskonia and forced them to make some bad plays and turnovers that led to easy points from fast break or transition offense for the Serbian team. All their guards were excellent on how they defended and managed to run the court. Another part of the game in which Red Star totally dominated, was the rebounds. The Reds from Belgrade grabbed more offensive rebounds than Baskpnia got defensive ones. Zirbes played his best game this year, Marjanovic was in his usual standards and Mitrovic was another positive surprise on both ends. If we add the only 3/20 3points attempts from the Spanish team then we get the whole picture of the easy win for the Serbs.
The negative story of Baskonia
After the game coach Crespi was released from Baskonia and this was something that gave us a totally negative impression. Not because what we saw on the court was something that the fans of Baskonia dreamed of, but the first to blame for this mess is the management of the team. With American players coming just before the start of the season with one month contracts and after losing almost all the good players of last season, it’s not possible for a coach to perform miracles. Before two years Baskonia had players as Lampe, Pleiss, Milko and Nemanja Bjelica, Andres Nocioni and Brad Oleson. In the last two years all of them were sold, or left and the next in the line to go is the very talented guard Thomas Heurtel. The team is still in a building process with Vujacic added to the roster 15 days ago and no time was given to the coach. From the time that Baskonia took an A license from Euroleague, they appear to be every year weaker than the previous one. This is a pity for a city that loves basketball and lives for the games of Baskonia. President Querejeta is the first to blame for this situation.
Throwing rocks in the sea!
What can we say about the record night of Andrew Goudelock? With an unbelievable performance he led his team to a very important win in Munich against Bayern. He had a record night with 10/13 3pt shots and 34 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists and set a new record for successful 3 points attempts in a single game in Euroleague history. He was in the zone from the beginning and nobody managed to stop him. Together with Bogdanovic they score 14 3pt shots and the Turkish team finished the game with 17/30 behind the 3point line. Although the majority of executions from Goudelock were made after isolation plays, Fenerbahce shared the ball a bit better than in previous games. Despite the win and the improvement in the offensive end, the problems for Fenerbahce remaining. The press on the ball was not at all effective and the defense from the center position was again very poor. The guards of Bayern found many open spaces for penetrations. Still it was a win that gives psychology for the Turkish team and a defeat that cuts the chances of Bayern to reach the Top16.
The champs are alive!
A very intense and tough game was played in Malaga and in the end the result was a big win for Maccabi, a product of a very good 1st period and the defensive effort of Maccabi on the floor. The Euroleague champs started the game storming and had a double digit advantage early on. They tried to put the ball inside in the beginning, but as the game proceeded they started playing from the perimeter. The coaching staff of Maccabi decided not to give spaces for Toolson and Granger. Granger finished the game with 2/15 shots, Toolson with 5/11 and both contributed for a total of only 3 assists. The difference is huge if we tale into account that during the four previous games Granger had 27 assists (6,75 per game) and Toolson 18 (4,5 per game). Malaga had almost 80 possessions, scored only 66 points and this shows how effective the defense of Maccabi was.
In the end the team from Andalusia had some fair complains for the referees. They were two clear mistakes and we mention them only because they were made in critical parts of the game. The play during which coach Plaza was ejected was a clear travelling from Tyus and after two plays Pargo made the mistake of backcourt violation but the referees didn’t see any if those.
Disappointments & surprises
Unics and Valencia continue to disappoint totally this year in Euroleague. We talked a lot of times about the problems that they face but no solution was presented on the floor. Unics Kazan was defeated at home from one of the weakest teams this year in Euroleague, Nizhny Novgorod. They faced a team that had the worst defense in the competition and they scored only 73 points. Unics is a totally unbalanced team with very few automations and very little ball movement that depends totally in their backcourt and has very few solutions in the post.
When the star guards are not in a good day the problems are increasing. This was clear again in this game as Langford, Jerrells and White had together 2 assists and very limited influence in the offensive game. The game in the paint for Unics was very poor also with few plays resulting to attempts from the post. On the other side in these two aspects of the game Nizhny had Rochestie in a great offensive day and Parakhouski, who was in total control of the paint in both ends. Fair win and a step forward for Nizhny.
Valencia started to roll in the offensive end but faced big problems in the defensive part of the game against Neptunas in Klaipeda. The Spanish team couldn’t protect their basket either in the paint, the perimeter and from penetrations. The team from Lithuania scored 94 points -53 in the 1st half- and was threat from everywhere. They finished the game with over 50% shooting efficiency in both 2pt and 3pt attempts.
What is important to mention is the huge differentiation in Neptunas home and away games. In the three home games the team from Lithuania scores an average of almost 87 points shooting in every game and shots higher than 50% in 2pt shots and almost 40% in 3pt attempts. On the contrary, in the games away from Klaipeda they score 68,5 points per game with almost the same percentages in the 2pt shots but only 20% behind the 3pt arc.
Thriller!
One of the most thrilling games of the 1st group phase took place in Istanbul. Efes won in a dramatic fashion with a tip in by Janning in the last second. In this game Cedi Osman introduced himself to the Euroleague fans with a huge performance. He finished the game with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks and contributed in both offense and defense. Efes Anadolu had a balanced offensive game, posting their forwards, trying to play pick and roll with Lasme and took advantage of all the defensive weaknesses of Real Madrid. The keys of the win for the Turkish side beside the performance of Osman were the following 2.
1.The switching defense with Lasme, who played great defense every time he was one on one with the guards of Real Madrid
2.The great defensive transition. Every time Real Madrid tried to run in the open court they were fouled or they found a quick defensive transition that didn’t let them open their game and score easy baskets.
What was strange for Real Madrid is that they didn’t try to put the ball in the paint, where Bouroussis was dominating the whole game because the Greek center was not in the court in the critical last minutes. Ayon was a defensive liability especially in pick and roll plays.
Barca won but not in a convincing way
The game between Barcelona and Panathinaikos ended with a win for the Spanish team. Barcelona prevailed, but their performance was not that convincing. The match up that gave the advantage was the great performance of Tomic. while Batista was not in his best night. From the beginning Barca fed the Croatian center either in the post or after pick and rolls. Tomic was excellent finishing with double – double in points and rebounds with 16 & 10 and 8/8 field goals. Lampe gave also a lot of help from the bench, Barcelona had better ball movement and the win was fair.
The difference of assists was crucial, Panathinaikos finished only with 9 assists and missed many open shots. On the contrary Barcelona dished 18 assists and scored more easily using good screens away from the ball. Moreover in the last five minutes almost every decision that the Greens took in the defensive end was not correct.
Panathinaikos finished the game with only 2/20 3pt shots. In the last 2 games this number was 27/41. Many of the missed 3pt shots where open shots and this number was a matter of a bad day. Despite the defeat Panathinaikos showed that they can perform better.
Milos- Korobkov & the 31 turnovers!
For 3 periods CSKA was playing really bad, especially in defense. They couldn’t match the quickness and the athleticism of Limoges and faced big problems in the defensive miss matches. Limoges used zone for a long period and created also problems in the ball movement of the Russian team. After three periods the score was 71-59. In the 4th quarter everything changed, Coach Itoudis used a lineup without a center, but with two quick forwards Vorontsevich and Korobkov. Also two point guards Jackson and Teodosic played together plus Weems. With this lineup CSKA became much quicker in defense, using switches without creating miss matches and in offense they opened the court a lot. They used pick and roll plays created from Teodosic who finished the game with 16 points & 12 assist (8 pts-5 ass in the 4th quarter) and great execution from Korobkov who finished with 12 points, 10 of them in the 4th quarter. Despite the win CSKA for 3rd game in a row faced a lot of problems in the defensive end especially from the perimeter and they have to improve in this part of the game.
After three straight wins and great performances Zalgiris played their worst game in Sardegna against Sassari. Two numbers are enough for everybody to understand how bad the performance of the Lithuanians was. The 1st was the 92 points allowed. In the previous games Zalgiris had one of the best defenses in the competition with an average of 69 points and against Sassari they allowed 92. The second one was turnovers. In the previous four games Zalgiris committed an average of 16 turnovers and this number they ended up with 31. With such bad defense and without concentration in offense it was almost impossible for Zalgiris to expect something more than a defeat in this game.