Copa del Rey is past us, again. Europe’s most prestigious and best-organized cup competition, the second most important single-weekend event in European basketball, may not go down as an instant classic but was enjoyable nevertheless. Barca is going home with yet another title … and a winning streak that has reached 16 games. Here are my turbid thoughts on la Copa.

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Week #8 is in the books and it won’t be forgotten soon: Dimitris Diamantidis provided us with one of the more worthwhile crunch time performances in recent years, while Fenerbahce and Barcelona went head-to-head in front of a sold-out Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul. Caja Laboral kept Top16 hopes alive with victory over Prokom, while CSKA is clinging to that last tiny bit of hope after dealing Svetislav Pesic his first loss of the season.

RANDOM BITS

• 13 points, 3/3 layups, 1/1 three pointers, 4/4 free throws, 1 offensive rebound. All in the final 74 seconds of regulation.

  But when the Greens were down 60-68 with 2:37 to play, it was emergency scoring time. His coach, Zeljko Obradovic, called a timeout and from the outcome, it seems that all he said was: “Dima, take over.” Up to that point, Diamantidis had only 3 points, 1 rebound and 5 assists. He finished the game with 16 points, 3 rebounds and 11 assists, but those are just figures. He scored his team’s last 13 points in just 74 seconds to force the overtime, including a put-back of Mike Batiste’s miss to tie the game on the buzzer and send it to overtime. He started OT with 3 assists that were enough to put the Greens up 90-82, ending the emergency. He did nothing from then to the finish, but of course, there was no need anymore. “Sometimes, I have no words to describe his role and contribution to our game,” Batiste said afterward. “He is always here to show the way to all of us.” Amazingly, Diamantidis was responsible for ALL of his team’s 30 points between 60-68 and 90-82, by either scoring or dishing the assists for every basket, 13 points and 6 assists, 5 of the latter on three-point shots.

  Yarone Arbel – In awe of Dimitris

  There isn’t really much more to say about Dimitris Diamantidis‘ epic clutch performance (play-by-play) on Thursday. He single-handedly turned around a game that was already lost. Diamantidis is no newcomer to crunch time heroics either. Last week in Moscow it was a tough key rebound, this week something else was needed.

  Because of Diamantidis Panathinaikos survived, even if Antonis Fotsis made the wrong decisions (after a great steal) a few seconds from time by passing to the covered Mike Batiste instead of the wide-open sniper Drew Nicholas on the right wing.

  

  About Olimpija’s inability to put the game out of reach, Jure Zdovc had the following to say:

  I feel guilty because I didn’t call a time out and the players didn’t knew what to do. We had a gap of communication in the last crucial seconds.

• The Fenerbahce vs. Barcelona matchup deserves game of the week honors. It had the audience – a packed Sinan Erdem Dome, pushing Fenerbahce to even greater heights in the Euroleague attendance ranking – as well as a fantastic matchup between two of the league’s top teams so far this season. Barca pick and rolled the hosts to death that evening. It was a clinical display for long stretches except for a short 4th quarter span when Ricky Rubio and Victor Sada suddenly started taking long two pointers off the dribble.

  Notice the amount of close range shot opportunities they generate via pick and roll. It is no fluke, as a look at the stats indicates: Barca is 4th in the league in close range attempts per field goal attempts ratio (CR/FG%) at 45,8 as well as 1st in the league in close range shooting percentage (CR%) at 67,9 – a highly effective combination, pushing them to 3rd in the league in points per possession (P/POS) despite an incredibly poor performance from beyond the arc (27,5% shooting from 3pt range).

  Only few of the shots are taken by the ballhandler himself. Also notice the high pace that passing, moving and screening are executed in. Immedeate decision-making is asked from the players. Overdribbling is not an option. Also, quite frequently the pick and roll ballhandler is given an advantage with two or more screens. All that is a welcome remainder that (statistical) PACE really just measures possessions per 40 minutes – or in other words: the time a team needs for a possession on both offense and defense. It says nothing about the sharpness of halfcourt execution.

  All that in the absence Juan Carlos Navarro, surely more of a direct scoring threat in pick and roll than pass-first guards Rubio and Sada, as well as the injured one-on-one scorer Pete Mickeal. Not everything has been going well for Barca – a tough defeat against Estudiantes just six days ago made that very clear – , but once Navarro, Mickeal and Terence Morris‘ long range shooting (which is inexplicably poor this season – 27% in EL and 31% in ACB on mostly wide open looks) are back, they’ll be the team to beat. Often a player’s twitter statement is more authentic than mechanical answers in press conferences and postgame interviews. Joe Ingles summed it up nicely for Barca after a rough start (team-wise, Ingles has been excellent in his first games for Barca) to the season:

  Needed that one

STATS OF THE WEEK

• League stats for Week #8. A fairly productive week with the highest field percentages of the season. Offense has been good in the last couple of weeks.

  

• Roderick Blakney has stabilized Unicaja to a certain extend (like in: stabilizing a cardhouse by making sure the table it is built on is standing on even ground – of course there’s still a great chance for it to collapse) – very fine oncourt/offcourt +/- numbers (7th in the whole league at +23,43 per 70 Possessions), steady playmaking, solid defense.

• Zoran Erceg played 28 minutes in Malaga. Primary reason was the absence of Matt Nielsen. Fact is: Erceg played significant minutes three times this season. Against Real (27:12 on, 55:54 off) and Unicaja (60:50 on, 14:26 off), his team performed extremely well with him on the court, against Bamberg (12:21 on, 49:52 off) not so much.

• Andre Riddick played only 11,8 minutes vs. Bamberg, but it was just enough time to change the game. Charleroi was 33:12 with Riddick on the floor, 42:49 in 28,2 minutes without him.

• Long shots, long rebounds. A short breakdown of Panathinaikos’ offensive rebounds against Olimpija: 7 close range shots missed, 3 offensive rebounds; 6 midrange shots missed, 5 offensive rebounds; 18 three point shots missed, 8 offensive rebounds; 4 second free throws missed, 1 offensive rebound.

• In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a new stats page up – detailed team stats. Those are mainly about close range, midrange, three point shooting percentages, shot location ratio, percentage of shots created by an assists. You’re probably comfortable with those stats already.

  I find those extremely interesting because they tell us something about the tendencies of teams – where they operate, where they are particularly efficient, and more. Looking for conherences is also interesting. Midrange shooting for example. Obviously mastering the midrange game is a skill that can help you a lot in certain situations. It is hardly something to force though, at least that’s my opinion on it. The long two is the least effective shot in basketball. The reason is simple: A close range shot is usually easier to finish, a three point shot counts for three. I don’t think a load of midrange shot attempts is a good sign. Here’s what the stats say: midrange shot attempts per field goal attempts (MR/FG%) on the horizontal axis, effective field goal percentage (eFG%) on the vertical axis, colour for midrange shooting percentage (MR%).

  Remember eFG%? A very useful stat that “measures three point percentage in two point percentage”. For example, a player has 12 shot attempts: He makes 6 from 2pt range – that’s 12 points. A different player makes 4 three pointers on 12 shot attempts – 12 points also. By FG% p1 shoots 50%, whereas p2 shoots 33% while being identically effective. By eFG% – (0,5*3FGM + FGM)/FGA) – both is 50%.

  If the causal context of fewer midrange attempts = higher shooting effectiveness indeed exists, the data points should gather around sort of a diagonal line from top left to bottom right.

  Well, it is not as clear and simple. But there are some statements in this: The three teams with highest MR/FG% are all bottom six in the league in eFG%. On the other hand, Montepaschi, tied for 3rd in MR/FG%, is quite effective. Meanwhile, out of three teams with the lowest MR/FG%, two (Barcelona and Panathinaikos) are effective, whereas the other one (Bamberg) is mildly effective, but relatively satisfying considering budget and roster quality. Real, it has been written more than once, takes a huge amount of midrange shots. Of course the actual shooting percentage (MR%) is always a factor. However, the percentage is only in rare cases going to be satisfying.

  

  More on midrange shooting. And maybe a clearer way of presenting how ineffective midrange shooting really is: comparing MR% with the isolated eFG% for three point shots (3eFG%). There are two important statements: 1) Only 4 of 24 teams shoot better than 41% from midrange. 2) Only 2 of 24 teams shot worse than 41% eFG% on three point shots. I think midrange and 3pt shots are quite comparable in the sense that both don’t lead to a lot of free throws, while close range shots do. That’s why I’d be hesitant to compare close range and 3pt range shooting on eFG%-basis. Close range shot attempts get you to the line, you draw fouls. Long twos and threes don’t.

  Of course the midrange shot is not always a priority decision, but sometimes just a consequence of poor offense (good defense?) and the final attempt of scoring a basket. Of course there’s a difference between the open catch and shoot midrange jumper and the wild off the dribble attempt. When a Barca player takes a midrange shot, there’s a good chance it’s Fran Vazquez on an open look on the catch and shoot. That’s high percentage. The statistics don’t cover that. But, by my perception, the Euroleague champions of the past five years, CSKA, Panathinaikos and Barca, all took an extremely low attempt of midrange jumpshots. Remember the shotchart (Barca / Olympiacos) from the Euroleague final game? Some found it funny, some didn’t like it, but in the end, it was good basketball, played by the two most efficient Euroleague offenses that season, the result of hours and hours in the practice gym and in front of video screen and tactic board.

U22 WATCH

• Valanciunas watch: DNP

• Cibona watch: Leon Radosevic (1990) had 20 and 7 on 7/13 shooting (4 assisted) against Montepaschi. Radosevic is leading the league in succesful midrange shots per game at 3,3 while hitting them at a 51%-clip. 69,2% of his midrange shots are created by an assist. Midrange shot attempts make 60% of his overall field goal attempts. Bojan Bogdanovic (1989) is still leading the league in scoring, but this 6 point – 2 for 11 outing surely wasn’t his best performance this season. Tomislav Zubcic (1990) had 15 points (4/9FG, 6/8FT) and 7 boards, but 6 turnovers.

  

• Let’s take our eyes off the Euroleague for a second, and onto EuroCup action: Donatas Motiejunas (1990) is showing great improvement this season. The young Lithuanian is in his second year with Benetton Treviso and averaging 13,4 points / 4 rebounds (2,5 of them offensive) on 63% 2pt shots and 50% from beyond the arc in Lega A, as well as 13 and 6,5 in the EuroCup. The 20-year-old is still showing lack of concentration at times which shows on the defensive end in particular, needs to crash the boards with more authority, but positive signs are definitely there: He has added some weight, he’s more and more comfortable in his actions, and most impressivingly, the lefty has an outstanding right hand which makes him a difficult matchup to defend. Here’s some footage from a rather subpar 9 points, 6 rebounds, 5 turnover-outing 1 1/2 weeks ago @Estudiantes (Boxscore), but interesting nevertheless. After all, Motiejunas footage is rather rare on the net. (Also read: “Dominant Donatas” on Draftexpress)

• Tibor Pleiss (1989) had 13 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks in 23,9 minutes for Bamberg in Charleroi; Nicolo Melli (1991) had 2 points (1/4FG) in 6,6 minutes for Milano; Boban Marjanovic (1988) had 2 points and 2 boards in 10 minutes for CSKA; Pietro Aradori (1988), 7 and 3 turnovers in 13,6 minutes; Martynas Gecevicius (1988) is coming up with huge games lately, 19 points and 3 assists for him versus Cholet; Christophe Leonard (1990) has earned his playing time through good performances: 25,1 minutes for him vs. Rytas, scored 6; Nick Calathes (1989) had 4 points and 3 turnovers in 13 minutes; Giorgi Shermadini (1989) had 6, 4 and 5 turnovers in 18 minutes. Sasu Salin (1991) played only 6 minutes; Ricky Rubio (1990) had 10 points, 8 assists and 3 steals in Istanbul, best game of the season for him; Dragan Milosavljevic (1989) and Jan Vesely (1990) combined for 0/6 from the field in 39,2 minutes for Partizan; Nihad Djedovic (1990) was 0/8 from the field in 26,2 minutes for Roma. Back on earth after a fantastic week; Vladimir Dasic (1988) had 7 points, was 1/7; Nikola Mirotic (1991) has played his way into Messina’s rotation: 9 points (3/7), 3 rebounds, +/- of +12 in 16,1 minutes against Roma;

AROUND THE NET

• A somewhat dubious call hands Barca their 5th defeat of the season; Dirk Nowitzki leads the NBA in oncourt/offcourt +/-, Pau 3rd, Manu 12th, Scola 20th, Marc 21st; Interesting interview with Keith Langford, who’s 2nd in the league in scoring;

It was close, but in the end, the favourites prevailed. Hemofarm held on to a thirteen point first leg edge in a nine point loss to Galil Gilboa, ASVEL needed overtime to get past Buducnost and ALBA rode a 12:0 third quarter run on four consecutive three pointers to beat Roanne 95:82. Spirou managed to keep Nymburk at bay to advance to the next rounds, while Khimki, Unics and Le Mans, all away winners in the first leg, had little difficulties finishing the job at home.

Standout individual performances of the day, as far as boxscore production goes: Julius Jenkins‘ 23 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists for ALBA, Marko Popovic‘s 6 for 11 outside shooting for Unics (finished with 22 points), Ebi Ere‘s 28 points in an unsuccessful attempt to keep pace with Khimki.

The lack of live picture from the qualifiers has been a huge disappointment so far, so we’re glad to have some decent footage from o2 world in Berlin that gives us a first glance at this new ALBA Berlin team.

After a disciplined and at times ice cool ALBA team ran out of gas in two consecutive BBL playoffs, many suggested that Luka Pavicevic loosen up the inflexible offensive system in order to reignite some enthusiasm. That appears to have happened, with ALBA getting out in transition frequently and displaying a sense of urgency rarely seen in recent years in o2 world. The basic structure, a high pick and roll offense with one clear screen
‘n’roll big and a stretch four, hasn’t changed at all under the new rules and with such good shooters ALBA looks well equipped to easily make the transition. Questions remain regarding defense. Neither of the quartet Marko Marinovic, Hollis Price, Derrick Allen (even moreso at center) and Tadija Dragicevic is known for defense. Conceding 168 points in two games versus Roanne cannot silence the doubters yet.

Price is again getting the better of Marinovic in +/-, but Allen leads the team here with plus 27 points in just 23 1/2 minutes, compared to minus 14 in his offcourt time.

ALBA is now facing Hemofarm, ASVEL and Le Mans meet for an all-French clash, Khimki is clear favourite vs. Budivelnik and Unics is coming up against a quite dangerous Spirou Charleroi.

SUPERCOPA: New season, same old story – Barca trashes Real
The most prestigious preseason tournament, the Spanish Sopercopa, started yesterday with Valencia and Barcelona winning the respective semifinals vs. hosts Caja Laboral and Real Madrid.

Caja Laboral vs. Valencia 66:67: I only witnessed the last couple of minutes of this one. Mirza Teletovic took 20(!) shots from the field (made 6), including 10 from beyond the arc. Probably not what Dusko Ivanovic has in mind when thinking about filling the void left open by the departure of Tiago Splitter. Stanko Barac had 13 points and 10 rebounds as the shooting guard tandem of David Logan and Brad Oleson finished with 2/9 from the field. Newest addition Marcus Haislip played only six minutes. For Valencia, Serhiy Lishchuk had 18 points, Nando de Colo had 17 including several key baskets, and Bruno Sundov chipped in with 14.

Quite eventful final minute there, with Victor Claver blocking Teletovic’s dunk attempt, De Colo making the tough shot over Teletovic on the other end, and Teletovic barely missing a ridiculously long rainbow shot at the buzzer.

Barcelona vs. Real Madrid 89:55: Barca played suffocating defense right from the start. While they were getting everywhere they wanted on the floor, Real had to work hard for every basket. Barca is perfectly built for playing under the new rules. Terence Morris makes the long three with ease (finished 5/7 from beyond the arc; Barca 13/23 as a team), there’s more space to use Erazem Lorbek‘s skills down low and Pete Mickeal‘s isolation scoring in high- and lowpost, and finally the team is very quick and agile to cover space on defense and close out shooters. Defense was as impressive as ever. Real was on course for about 45 points before the game loosened up a little bit in the second half. Ricky Rubio shot 3/4 from beyond the arc and looked more comfortable than he ever did in Turkey.

Real is still looking like a bunch of individuals playing together for the first time. They generated not more than a handful open shots in the whole game, with most production coming off of Clay Tucker‘s ability to make difficult shots. Sergio Rodriguez looked like he didn’t know what he was doing and finished with 1/7 from the field. Sergio Llull was 0/7 on two pointers, Ante Tomic finished 2/8 from mostly close range. Hard work still waiting for Ettore Messina.

QUALIFICATION ROUND STATS UPDATE
Here’s the stats update after the 2nd leg of Euroleague qualification round one.

Euroleague qualifiction continues next Tuesday.