IN THE GAME

Euroleague regular season is over, and as always, I’ll waste way too much energy trying to analyze what has been happening in the first 10 weeks so far. After all, Top16 is coming fast, and some teams are going to show a completely different nature once the next stage has started this goes. Historically, that goes in particular for the teams of the two best headcoaches in the European game – Ettore Messina and Zeljko Obradovic. Anyway, here are some of my thoughts on the regular season …

REGULAR SEASON 1st TEAM

Ricky Rubio has been exceptional for Barcelona at the point guard position, leading the offense with his creativity and playing lockdown defense on the other end of the court. The 19-year-old (yes, nineteen) is averaging 5.6 assists per game and shooting 8 for 20 from three point range. He’s also a very good +5.84 per 70 possessions in offensive oncourt/offcourt-statistics, but to really understand his role on the unbeaten Barca team, you have to see it.

Soon-to-be 34 years old veteran Trajan Langdon is having one of the most productive seasons of his life. The former Duke star and double Euroleague champion is having a little more freedom on offense and is shooting with great confidence and success – 23 for 46 from downtown. Recently, his three pointers seven seconds from time secured first place for CSKA in Group C.

Romain Sato had a stinker in Barcelona on Thursday, but one subpar game cannot hide the fact that he’s been playing splendid basketball for Montepaschi, putting up very good offensive numbers – 13.3 points and 4.4 rebounds per game – to accompany the intangibles that make him one of the best wing players on the continent. Sato is among next summer’s top free agents.

Olympiacos topscorer Linas Kleiza is pure efficiency, posting 17.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game while the adjusted plus/minus numbers tell us that he’s not doing it at the expense of his team.

Aleks Maric’s game has been addressed in detail on this page, it’s a shame the guy went down with a knee injury last week and might miss Top16 games. Maric is a beast on the boards and has been a very efficient scorer in the Partizan offense as well.

Honorable mentions are Olympiacos’ Theodoros Papaloukas, who is THE key player for the reds on both ends of the floor, Real Madrid’s Darjus Lavrinovic, and Caja Laboral’s Tiago Splitter.

NO-STATS TEAM

Glue guys, team players, the silent killers like Shane Battier and Anderson Varejao are making headlines even in the glamorous world of the NBA. Europeans have always loved the dirty players, intelligent team defenders, tough guys that have a that “play hard”-attitude, but too rarely we take the next step and officially pay some respect for what these guys are doing.

36-year-old Laurent Sciarra did not manage to guide his team to Top16, but wouldn’t that have been the surprise of the season anyway? Sciarra is one of the purest pass first point guards out there, a true floor general who dictates game pace. Since this might have been Sciarra’s last Euroleague season – who knows if Orléans will qualify again and whether or not Sciarra is going to be back – let me say: Merci, Monsieur Sciarra.

I’m not a hundred percent sure if Sergio Llull qualifies for this lineup, since his stats are quite decent. However, I feel they’re not enough of a reflection of what he’s giving this aging Real Madrid team – at least the common statistics don’t show it, adjusted oncourt/offcourt-staats do. A huge boost of energy, decent point guard defender and he’s really playing intelligent basketball, picking his shots carefully. With him, Real is 18:2 in both ACB and Euroleague this season. Without him, they’re 4:4.

Carlos Jimenez isn’t making many headlines anymore now that his days in the Spanish national team are over. A few years back, Jimenez’ defense was a real key in Spain’s climb up to the top of world basketball. Who can, for example, forget his exceptional defensive performance in the 2006 World Championship Final versus Greece? However, Jimenez still has it in him, as his outstanding defensive oncourt/offcourt numbers indicate.

As an intelligent passer, tough defender and doing many more things that cannot really be measured, Shaun Stonerook is the definition of a glue guy, which is why Montepaschi gave him a multiyear contract extension last summer.

Stephane Lasme’s shotblocking is a huge factor on defense, opponents shoot a lot worse when he is on the court compared to off the court. It seems that he’s gone from star (Partizan) to hardly recognized role player (Maccabi), which is somewhat unjustified.

I could have added Dimitris Diamantidis, since his presence on the court for Panathinaikos is in no way reflected by the individual numbers, but considering five Defensive Player of the Year awards and one Euroleague Finals MVP, I felt it wasn’t appropriate.

THE CONTENDERS

Regal FC Barcelona: (10-0) Xavi Pascual’s Barcelona has been rampant, winning games by an average margin of 20.8 points in the Euroleague. Group A was one of the weaker ones in this regular season, but the two victories over Montepaschi – one by 19 and one by 15 points – were impressive nevertheless. Statistically, Barcelona is an elite team in all three main areas – offensive efficiency, defensive efficiency, rebounding.

# = ranking among all 24 Euroleague teams; P/POS = points per possession; oP/POS = opponent points per possession; OREB% = defensive rebound percentage = OREB / (OREB + opp.DREB); DREB% = defensive rebound percentage = DREB / (DREB + opp.OREB)

Panathinaikos Athens: (7-3) The champs have been slowed down significantly by injuries to Dimitris Diamantidis, Kostas Tsartsaris, Vassilis Spanoulis, Stratos Perperoglou and Nikola Pekovic, while Sarunas Jasikevicius is only slowly regaining his 08/09 Final Four form. The Greens must somehow find a way to get everyone fit and back in form for Top16, since their group figures to be a difficult one. Statistically, defensive rebounding has been a huge problem.

Real Madrid: (8-2) Fueled by the return of Sergio Llull and Felipe Reyes’ journey back to top form, Real is slowly climbing out of a midseason crisis that had them lose four consecutive games in ACB, including key games in Vitoria-Gasteiz and at home versus Barcelona. Despite their lack of elite class talent, I expect them to play for the title in May.

Olympiacos Priaeus: (8-2) The Reds are the fast team in the league, clearly adjusting the game to the player personel and thus getting the best out of, for example, Josh Childress. At the same time, they are clearly struggling when the opponent manages to slow them down. The question is whether or not they can keep the pace up in the historically slower playoff- and Final Four games.

Montepaschi Siena: (8-2) Some teams might be demoralised after losing twice to Barcelona by double digits. I wouldn’t expect that to happen to Montepaschi, a team full of competitive spirit and a several players that simply hate losing. After all, it hasn’t happened to them that often in the last couple of years. Their last defeat in a domestic league game was on the 3rd of January 2009. More than a year ago.