Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 4:01 pm  |  5 responses

Euroleague Weekly Review

Olympiacos is ran out of the gym!

by Erildas BudraitisJoel Freeland

While NBA fans were celebrating the new season tip-off this week, Euroleague fans were commemorating the game’s second week. After two weeks, in Europe’s strongest basketball competition, six teams remain undefeated.

This week’s biggest surprise for the tour happened in Moscow, where last year’s Euroleague runner-up CSKA lost a tough match to Lottomatica Roma (69-74). It could be a sign that CSKA is not the same dominating power that we saw a few years ago. Certainly, it’s too early to say who’s hot and who’s not. Next week will bring a true test, as the Russian powerhouse will try to pass the Maccabi Tel Aviv exam.

This week I will review another Euroleague game, wherein fought B group favorites — Unicaja Malaga and Olympiacos Piraeus.

GAME OF THE WEEK

During the offseason, like almost all offseasons before, Olympiacos was trying to sign several well-known NBA players… and they did. The Greek club got ex-Nugget, Linas Kleiza, and ex-Rocket, Von Wafer. Of course, don’t forget former Atlanta Hawks guard, Josh Childress. Now we have three talented former NBA players on one European team.

After easy first week win against the Euroleague debutant, Entente Orleanaise (94-72), Olympiakos got strong hit from the Unicaja Malaga – (68-86) – throughout the second game.

Olympiakos had big trouble in defense from the get-go. In the first quarter they let Unicaja to score 30 points, falling behind by 12 points (30-18). The Greek team tried to close the gap, but to no avail. Unicaja raised its advantage and took the easy win.

Remember Kleiza, Wafer and Childress, in their last seasons in the NBA, averaged a combined 30+ ppg. Unfortunately, in the game against Unicaja, those three athletes combined for just 20 points. What a miserable night.

Spanish club didn’t need NBA players, but they did have ex-Louisville Cardinals team star Taquan Dean. He scored the team 19 points and was the key to victory.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

This week’s MVP award will be shared by Matt Walsh from Union Olimpija Ljubljana and CajTiago Splittera Laboral center Tiago Splitter. Both players finished with a 36 index rating. Walsh scored 32 points against Maroussi Athens. Splitter, 24 years old, once again showed perfect form, scoring a career-high 26 points and grabbing 7 rebounds. The Brazilian also helped Caja Laboral defeat Maccabi.

Third in this week’s ranking was the unstoppable Ali Traore from ASVEL. The Frenchman finished this game with 29 points, 13 rebounds and a 34 index ranking.

Next week the Euroleague will bring us two monster games – Real Madrid plays Panathinaikos and Maccabi battles CSKA. Will Panathinaikos stay perfect with three wins in a row? And which champion — Israeli or Russian — is stronger now?

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  • http://slamonline.com/ Ryne Nelson

    Thanks for this, Erildas. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite columns every week. By the way, are the Spurs ever going to bring Splitter to the League? Does he even have the skill to play meaningful minutes in the NBA?

  • Aussie Boy

    yeah mine too (maccabi, panathinaikos, tau ceramica, unicaja malaga, regal barca, real madrid are favourites) i like hearing bout former NBAers

  • http://edska.tumblr.com/ Edska

    Splitter has been a quality Euroleague player for years and I think he hasn’t got that much interest in NBA while he can play big games and earn as much in the old continent, so.. you know :)

  • http://slamonline.com Erildas Budraitis

    I think this season Tiago will prove that he’s ready to play in the NBA. He’s just 24-years-old experienced Eurolegue player and he’s one of the most dominating center in Europe. Definitely, he’s ready.

  • http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/ PANAGIOTIS VASILOPOULOS

    @Ryne…..:Splitter is easily top-10 big man in the world he won’t have a problem in the NBA (although he won’t be that “productive” as you say since he ain’t so explosive) i got him at number 6.
    For some real news on the game now: Angelopoulos fined the whole team AND the coaching staff with 10% of their monthly earnings for the way they played in Spain. Malaga has nowhere the talent of Olympiakos and ,as Mesina said last week, the PAO,Barcelona&Olympiakos are on a league of their own in Europe (talent&budgetwise). Giannakis (Olympiakos coach ) said after the game that ‘some guys have to understand that they play in europe now’…..he is right. Unfortunatelly for Josh,Wafer & Kleiza EVERY game here is like an NBA playoff game (because of the format of the championship). Olympiakos, Pao and Barca will propably be in the final four. My pick for the last spot is Real. CSKA is O-V-E-R ,anyone who follows closely the euroleague knows this. Smodic is out and Lorbek(their best big man and one of the best in Europe) left for Barca. Of course i expect them to make it to the top-8 (mainly because of the great Siskauskas). CSKA was really lucky last week to win over Marousi on a crazy ofbalance three from Hriapa…this week they played against a more talented team and simply lost.

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