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Euroleague Playoffs games 1 & 2 round-up

with 5 comments

(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.

On the other end of the floor, Panathinaikos struggled to establish their inside game against Blatt’s match up zone and even though they shot extremely well from the perimeter, Zeljko Obradovic will have to figure out how to beat this defense from inside. At the same time, I wouldn’t rule out Panathinaikos going into their own zone more often, even after David Blu went all Mirza on them in the extra period. This series will be won by the team that controls the paint and the play of big men is only a small part of the equation. Let’s see what both coaches have in mind.

Barcelona Unics Kazan 2-0. On the opposite end of the spectrum, meet Barcelona and Unics Kazan. Xavi Pascual puts a premium on keeping his big men in the paint, minimizing defensive rotations and forcing opponents into contested mid-range jumpers – ironically, this type of shot is also featured prominently in Barcelona’s offense, but that’s another post. In this series, though, things have changed.

As Evgeny Pashutin tries to run his shooters off multiple screens – and perhaps wear down Juan Carlos Navarro in the process, much like Pablo Laso did at the Copa del Rey final - Pascual has been spreading his defense on the perimeter. Boni N’Dong has often switched to Henry Domerkant when the latter catches the ball beyond the arc, with Domerkant’s man and the Barcelona power forward double teaming Nathan Jawai or Vladimir Veremeenko when they receive an entry pass on the low post. The blaugrana defense has expanded its range and even though Jawai made great use of the extra room inside in game two, it remains quite effiective. This is great news for Pascual, not only in this series (Unics take and make a lot of threes in their wins this season), but also in their upcoming ACB battles with such deadly three point shooting teams as Real Madrid and Caja Laboral.

It should be noted, however, that the success of this new defensive approach has a lot to do with the absence of Mike Wilkinson. The Barcelona power forwards are able to rotate into the paint after the center steps outside because Unics are currently lacking their stretch four. One solution would be to move the rejuvenated Bostjan Nachbar in that position. It’s no secret that he doesn’t enjoy playing there, but his shooting could help his team’s spacing. Still, sooner or later Barcelona will win this series. The real question is whether they will build on some of the adjustments that they tried on offense during the first half of the series’ opening game – Huertas attacking early in the shot clock, their bigs getting more looks closer to the basket, the whole team playing at a faster pace. In some ways, Barcelona seem like a work in progress. That’s a scary thought.

Montepaschi Siena – Olympiacos* 1 -1. After Olympiacos opened the series with a surprising road win, Dusan Ivkovic noted that after every quarter Siena’s shooting percentage kept dropping. What he didn’t add is that his team seemed to be getting stronger as the game went along. Olympiacos have played with inspiring energy and staged furious comebacks in both games. Siena have scored 48 points in the first half of each game, led by the inside – outside game of David Andersen and Ksistof Lavrinovic – Joey Dorsey in particular has struggled to keep up with their movement. But once the perimeter shots stopped falling (Siena have attempted 54 mid-range shots in the first two games, while their three-point attempts have been drastically limited by Olympiacos’ timely perimeter rotations), they seem to run out of ideas and their opponents have taken advantage, by attacking before the Italian champs’ defense is set – in large part thanks to Acie Law, who has done an excellent job running Olympiacos’ early offense.

But the most athletic team does not always win – unless that team is CSKA Moscow. Siena have been pretty successful at containing Vassilis Spanoulis and even though their offensive rating has cooled off a bit after a sizzling top – 16 campaign, they can certainly score enough points to get a win in Piraeus. Especially if Bo McCalebb gets as many transition opportunities as he did in the second half of game two.  Also, experience matters. Olympiakos dug themselves a hole in both games through a combination of unforced turnovers in the first game and unnecessary fouls  in the second. Since the older Italians will be better rested in the third game, the margin of error in the first half of game three will be much smaller. On the other hand, Olympiakos have proven that they are deeper, more balanced and more resilient than most people thought. Expect a great battle.

CSKA Moscow – Bilbao Basket 2 – 0. CSKA’s perimeter defense in the first half of their opening game  against Bilbao was quite poor. Their shot selection in game two came straight out Don Nelson’s Golden State Warriors playbook. And overall, their body language often betrayed a sense of entitlement. Still, they won both games by an average margin of 18 points. Bilbao should be applauded for honoring the principles that got them here, but they are clearly overmatched. Right now, the same can be said for every Euroleague team out there. CSKA are often praised for their ball movement and their depth, but above all their athleticism is unmatched. If they remain focused (looking at you, Jonas) the inevitable will happen.

  Blogosphere

  • Yarone Arbel with some interesting thoughts on road wins during the playoffs and Diamantidis’ shot selection.
  • Coach Aito Garcia Reneses on Bilbao’s courageous play and CSKA’s ability to capitalize on even the slightest defensive breakdown
  • Some idiot thought that Chuck Eidson would be a key player in the playoffs.

 

* Full disclosure: I am completely incapable of being objective about Olympiacos.

March 24th, 2012

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  • Yarone Arbel

    Very big idiot, but knows a thing or two about the game. 

    Great read. As always. 

  • V.

    Excellent post.
    I like the way you highlighted Ohayon’s action at game 2. Although all the lights went on Blu(could anyone expect more from him?), the real protagonist of the game was Ohayon without question.
    So, here we come to Papaloukas issue whose minutes are played by the Israeli guy. I used to have the same opinion with you about him, that he should play more minutes. But i don’t think it’s as simple as that.

    Papaloukas is not the player he used to be and Ohayon is making a good job as starting point guard and at game 2 was excellent.So, there is no reason he should play less.
    After all, their general playmaking style(first pass pg,nice drive,not 3pt threat) looks alike a bit, so i don’t think that Papaloukas can give so much more(other than experience), as someone would think.
    And maybe Thursday he had four important points in crunch time, but the clock when he got in showed 4.40 minutes to be played and by the end Panathinaikos had came back and went to overtime.
    Same story at game one. He played 2.40 minutes in which the 26-18 became 37-18 in favor of Panathinaikos.
    Coincidence? Perhaps.But a fact too. Like his weakness from the free throw line in crunch time.
    Anyone who has followed his career closely would bet (from his body language and expression) that no way he would not miss. Deja vu from last year’s greek championship’s last final.Same opponent,same court,same expression,same result.No need to go back to Turkey’s Eurobasket or other similar situations.

    So, should Maccabi rely more on a player that in the past has been one of the great ones only because of this?
    Yes, experience is very important especially at this stage, so increased playing time for Papaloukas would make sense, but looking at the big picture, i don’t think Blatt has handled it in a wrong way.
    Don’t forget that some minutes at the point guard position should be played by Mallet who brings diferrent things on tha table and more threat from outside the arc if needed.

    The only thing left, is Papaloukas take over the next two games and shut me down.  :)  

  • Pingback: Έγινε το 1-1 από Μακάμπι και Σιένα. « GALOBASKET

  • http://twitter.com/rodhig7 rodhig

    Actually I tend to agree with you. That’s why I wrote about ‘conventional wisdom’. The thing is, Blatt is not a conventional coach. Papaloukas would likely be considered by most coaches as a better fit next to Langford – Theo can keep the ball moving in the half court and his outlet passes would allow Langford to attack before the defense is set.

    Blatt decided that he wanted two slashers – Ohayon is a poor 3pt shooter – on the backcourt at the same time. Papaloukas has definitely lost a step, so he wasn’t the man for the job. At least for one game, this strategy worked perfectly. Maccabi got high percentage looks without turning the ball over. That said, it will be interesting to see Blatt’s response one Obradovic -inevitably – packs the paint.

    Maccabi shot a high percentage from beyond the arc Thursday night, but took very few shots from there, even by the standards. I think that Obradovic will follow Blatt’s lead and pull his defense closer to the basket. Let’s not forget that when Barcelona visited Tel Aviv, a similar strategy worked wonders for them. Can Maccabi come up with a better counter this time?

  • Yarone Arbel

    Well, let’s keep in mind that if Ohayon doesn’t make his two long range hits, especially the last one, and Hendrix doesn’t make some buckets with strange hooks outside the paint and Papaloukas doesn’t make 5 pts in a row in crunch time out of nowhere… Maccabi, despite the great game, doesn’t win.

    Maccabi had some great step ups. PAO was out of its system but nobody played above or below its level. 

    Maccabi barely won.

    I don’t think Maccabi can come up with another “ok, so Yogi will score 15 pts with a big three again” game plan. 

    Blatt will have to bring something else. Hopefully together with the push from the fans it’ll be enough, but as far as game plan… don’t see how Maccabi can repeat Game 2 and win. 

    Like you said tho… the mind game between two terrific minds as Blatt and Obradovic… will be a great pleasure.