Istanbul Roundup, Part Two: The Final Four
(sJacas) Friendly bounce here, free throw miss, foot on the line or questionable no-call there. Close basketball games are joyous celebrations of random incidents.
The final result means everything and nothing. It may decide upon season success or failure. But it cannot alter a performance that has already been delivered.
Similar to how he applauds the creation of a rational, high-percentage shot regardless of its outcome, Dusan Ivkovic must have felt deep satisfaction just for earning the opportunity to beat this CSKA Moscow team, one of the most devastating rosters European club basketball has ever seen, consisting of almost the entire Russian national team including its very elite players and enhanced with the two absolute cornerstones of the Serbian selection, plus an aging-like-wine Lithuanian all-decade-calibre forward. Having soundly defeated Montepaschi in the quarters, deservedly edged eighteen-and-one-Barca in the semis and now sensationally rallying in the final to push CSKA to one last, decisive possession, Olympiakos, Ivkovic, crew and players had already performed a truly phenomenal job.
Maybe that is why the old fox watches on in fascinating calmness as the players in red and white bounce around in joy: As Spanoulis begins his final charge upcourt, Ivkovic’s work has long been done. Everything that follows is left to Spanoulis’ decision-making, a bunch of subconscious decisions by CSKA defenders, Printezis’ intuition and muscle-memory, plus a decent portion of coincidence in its purest form, fresh from the garden.
Istanbul Roundup, Part One: NIJT
ISTANBUL, TURKEY – MAY 13: Lyetuvos Rytas players celebrate at the end of the Nike International Junior Tournament Final game between Lietuvos Rytas v Fenerbahce Ulker at Sinan Erden Dome on May 13, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Aitor Arrizabalaga/EB via Getty Images)
(sJacas) Part one of our Final Four wrap up centers around the Nike International Junior Tournament action at Abdi İpekçi Arena (group phase) and Sinan Erden Dome (today’s final). A magnificent display of team basketball by Lietuvos Rytas has rendered Dario Saric‘s (207cm-1994-PF) NIJT appearance a mere footnote. Saric, playing a power forward-ish type of role in halfcourt, averaged 18.2 points, 11.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 3.6 turnovers per 28 minutes in three NIJT games, but his showings were very much reminiscent of an iso- and minute-heavy, increasingly inefficient 2011 Under-19 World Cup performance. Frustrated with himself and teammates, Saric finished his last tournament game with just 9 for 24 from the field, as Zagreb lost to Zalgiris in a 25-point-blowout. The far and away most talented player here in Istanbul without doubt, Saric did show sequences of all-round brilliance, often rebounding in traffic before pushing the ball upcourt himself and flashing passes left and right in transition. The show, though, was run by others.
Notes 21-04-2012
Photo: CSKA Basketball
(sJacas) The pool of All-League nominees has only little surprise in store. Considering what appears to be common standard for All-League-selection – a combination of team success and per game stats (yes, I too dread this) – I find six spots (Kirilenko, Diamantidis, Krstic, McCalebb, Spanoulis, Lorbek) completely uncontroversial, two more (Teodosic, Domercant) are probably deserving as well, while selections number nine (Navarro) and ten (Batiste) were having unconvincing seasons for their own high standards, most likely due to age.
Notes 08-04-2012
Olympiakos vs Montepaschi
Strategies were clear from the get-go: Olympiakos switched on every screen and roll, Montepaschi reacted by dumping the basketball to their long, versatile big men David Andersen and Darjus Lavrinovic inside. I feel that is the most relevant part of what happened, since it was the Montepaschi- not the Olympiakos offense, that was performing out of character all series.
Euroleague Playoffs games 1 & 2 round-up
(RodHig) It’s that time of the season once again. Here’s a closer look at what has happened in each series.
Panathinaikos – Maccabi Tel Aviv 1 -1. Playmaking has been a huge issue for Maccabi Tel Aviv. Among playoff teams, only Bilbao and Olympiacos have a higher turnover percentage. For the season, only Fenerbahce, Nancy and Union Olimpija Ljubljana have scored less assisted field goals. In the opening game of their series against Panathinaikos, their struggles in this department were particularly evident, as the reigning champs recorded 13 steals and turned a classic Euroleague clash into a lay up line. Conventional wisdom says that if Theo Papaloukas had a more prominent role, these numbers would look a lot better. David Blatt, however, had a different idea, which paid huge dividends at the right time.
Maccabi’s epic overtime win against Panathinaikos in game two had a lot to do with a somewhat unknown 25-year old point guard, who is making his Euroleague debut this season and has been playing the majority of minutes that were supposed to go to Papaloukas. Yogev Ohayon turned the ball over only once in 30 minutes, while aggressively driving to the basket against a defense that leads the Euroleague in opponents’ turnovers. Overall, the Israeli champs made 23 field goals in 38 attempts at the rim, most of them generated in half court sets. In their home games, Panathinaikos limit their opponents to an average of 18 close range attempts, but they had no answer for the penetration of Maccabi’s perimeter players – Ohayon, Langford, Papaloukas and Devin Smith combined to make 12 of their 16 field goals at the rim. This efficient scoring was further reinforced by a pretty healthy assist-to-turnover ratio (at least by their standards) and propelled Maccabi to a win in Athens by simply outscoring Panathinaikos.
