Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 2:35 pm  |  12 responses

Euroleague Weekly Review

Will Efes miss the Top 16 for the second consecutive season?

by Erildas Budraitis

In this week‘s Euroleague Weekly Review, we will look at what happened in the seventh week of the Europe’s best basketball tournament. Only three weeks are left until the end of the regular season, so every game is do or die.

As you remember, Regal Barcelona was the first team to make TopBo McCalebb 16, and this week we have another three teams who joined Top 16. Montepaschi Siena, CSKA Moscow and Panathinaikos Athens are safe and now can  concentrate on being first in their groups.

While Regal Barcelona or Montepaschi continue to defeat every opponent, Partizan Belgrade, which won its third game in a row, experienced a miracle in Group B.

GAME OF THE WEEK

At the start of the season Partizan Belgrade lost three of its first four games, and that only win was against Group B outsider the Entente Orleanaise. But now Partizan is showing its real face – the Serbians blew out three of the group‘s top teams. First was Olympiakos Piraeus (86-80), then they beat Unicaja Malaga (72-64), and this week its was Efes Pilsen Istanbul’s turn (93-92).

We could call the game between Partizan and Efes Pilsen, “the thriller.” Neither team had a big lead and the match went point-by-point. But it was a lucky day for Partizan – Efes Pilsen had a 1-point lead with 8 seconds left, but Dusan Kecman made the jumper and brought the victory to Serbia.

“It’s always sweet to win by one point, but these are the kind of games that shorten your life,” said Aleksandar Maric, who led Partizan with 34 points. “Besides, my numbers would not mean anything if it weren’t for the last shot of Kecman.”

Maric also grabbed 16 rebounds and won week’s MVP award. Bo McCalebb added 17, and the game’s hero, Dusan Kecman, scored 12 points.

Igor Rakocevic with 24 points was the main scorer in Efes Pilsen club. Charles Smith made 18, Kaya Peker scored 17. Former New Jersey Nets forward Bostjan Nachbar had 14 points aAleks Maricnd just 2 rebounds.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Aleksandar Maric from the Partizan Belgrade is again on top of the list. The Serbian finished the game with 34 points, 16 boards and impressive 49 index ranking. It’s the second time Maric won the week’s MVP award (he also won it two weeks ago).

Second in this week’s MVP rankings is Khimki Moscow Region forward Kelly McCarty (31 index ranking). The American scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds against Panathinaikos Athens.

Third place was shared by Zalgiris Kaunas’ center Travis Watson and Regal Barcelona’s big man Fran Vazquez. They both got 30 index ranking points.

Next week will be the last before the holidays, so we’ll soon find out which teams will get Christmas’ presents sooner than others.

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  • http://slamonline.com/ Ryne Nelson

    Bo McCalebb is arguably the best point guard in Europe right now. Combine him with an MVP-type player in Maric, and you have a very solid competitor.

  • http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/ DIMITRIS DIAMANTIDIS

    @Erildas……:exactly as i told you about your supposed game of the week: NO CONTEST !!!!if only OLYMPIAKOS had a top-level coach….

  • http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/ DIMITRIS DIAMANTIDIS

    @Ryne Nelson…..: i take this “Bo Mc Calebb…. ” comment as a joke and not an irony(no offense, it’s just me and you posting here, hope you keep on…).
    TOP-10 POINT GUARDS IN EUROLEAGUE NOW:
    1)DIAMANTIDIS
    2)MCINTYRE
    3)YASIKEVICIOUS(still..)
    4)PAPALOUKAS
    5)J.R.HOLDEN
    6)LAKOVIC
    7)PRIGIONI
    8)RUBIO
    9)TEODOSIC
    10)CABEZAS

  • http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/ DIMITRIS DIAMANTIDIS

    As i said BEFORE the beggining of the Eurolegue, the 3 teams(Panathinaikos,Barcelona,Olympiakos) are head and shoulders above everybody else talent-wise (and budgetwise propably…). EXACTLY this thing also said this week Sergio Scariolo(Kimki Moscow and Spain national team coach). I felt good. Unfortunatelly Olympiakos a)has to play with Panathinaikos in the semifinal(a Euroleague rule) b)doesn’t have a bigtime coach….

  • d.j.

    who are the top 5 point guards in europe of all time ?
    1.McCalebb
    2.McCalebb
    3.McCalebb
    4.McCalebb
    5 and ummmm o ya McCalebb

  • d.j.

    and partizan is going to the top 16 again gentlemen… can you say No Budget !?

  • http://www.euroleagueadventures.com Nick Gibson

    @DimitrisDiamantidis – Come on man, you’ve gotta let Jasikevicius go. Even last year, he hardly played significant minutes and sat out this year’s Eurobasket. This top 10 might have almost worked 2 or 3 years ago, but Holden, Prigioni, and Lakovic haven’t done that much to justify their spots on your board. Holden’s been a liability for CSKA this year, Lakovic can’t stay healthy and is a shadow of his former self and Prigioni is simply being outplayed every time out by Llull. No problems with your others except for Teodosic, who wouldn’t know what defense was if it bit him in the rear. If we’re talking about THIS YEAR, McCalebb’s clearly been a Top 3 player. Let’s see if he can sustain it.

  • http://www.lkz.ch Darksaber

    Might i add that Diamantidis plays a LOT at the SG spot? He’s more shooter than PG imo. I mean Spanoulis spends more time there, so i don’t see you puttung him at the top spot, Spanny.

  • http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/ DIMITRIS DIAMANTIDIS

    @Darksaber…..:you dissapointed me a little bit, Diamantidis is as much a playmaker as it gets. The ONLY thing that can fool somebody that has never seen him play is his height. The guy is receiving (friendly) critisism all those years from greeks and from Obradovic because he is thinking ONLY as a playmaker and he is using his good scoring/shooting skills ONLY in the end of games. I was expecting such a comment from a “Jukaitavoris” type of commenter….
    @ Nick Gibson….: Yasikevicious said that he left Europe because it hAd become so easy for him that he had to wait every year for the final four to push himself a bit.Indeed AFTER he won 3 consecutive times the thing he left for U.S. It sounds arrogant, and i don’t like his character, BUT the guy is 100% true, he had became like M.J&Pippen in Macambi (together with A.PARKER)…NOW, if you saw last years most difficult game for Panathinaikos (semi final with Olympiakos where it was a tight game beggining till end) you would never have made such a comment. HE completely dominated at the end taking the ball and making the most important baskets. Like it or not, the guy proved that he is still the ruler of EUROPE(along with Siskauskas)….the only reason that i have him at no-3 and not at no-1 is because now he can do it only for 2-3 games. Fortunatelly for Panathinaikos, Euroleague has a final-4 format and not a “best of seven”……Mc Callebb is top-20 like Flip Murray was top-20 shooting guard some years ago after a crazy start of the season….Only at the end of the year i will move him higher and the others lower. Again, smoe big players(Yasikevicious) don’t even bother before March….now is the time for guys trying to make a name (Mccallebb, yull,etc)…..your Teodosic comment is obviously a joke, the guy was sellected best PG of Europe in poland….

  • http://www.euroleagueadventures.com Nick Gibson

    As a matter of fact, I did watch the Pana-Oly game in berlin last year, but thanks anyways. And as for Teodosic, just becasue he’s selected to an All-Tournament team, does that automatically make him a Top 10 PG? The fact remains that he can’t play any kind of defense. Actually, he might be able to but he just never tries. If we’re giving guys credit (Jasikevicius) for being able to pull out one or two great games per season, then we might as well say Oguz Savas is the best big in Europe while we’re at it.

  • http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/ DIMITRIS DIAMANTIDIS

    @Nick Gibson….:yeah, we DEFINITELLY give credit to guys that REPEATEDLY DOMINATE 2-3 games in the season IF ONLY 1)those games are the most important/bigger/most difficult games European basketball has to offer 2)they do this every f….n year for the last decade. Repeat after me: YASIKEVICIOUS-SISKAUSKAS,YASIKEVICIOUS-SISKAUSKAS….i don’t remember how many Euroleague MVP’s your “Oguz whatever” has under his belt…remind me please(while we’re at it).

  • http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/ DIMITRIS DIAMANTIDIS

    @nick Gibson….:by the way, it is too late and i am almost sleeping but i think that you described what Tedosic did this summer,game after game, against some of the best players in the world “just becasue he’s selected to an All-Tournament team”…….next thing you’re gonna compare Mc Allebb with Teodosic….

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