Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 3:33 pm  |  41 responses

Euroleague Weekly Review

The better the opponent, the better Ricky Rubio plays.

by Erildas Budraitis

Now that the Euroleague’s regular season is over, the Top 16 teams are set and will continue to fight for the Euroleague title. Some teams still can’t believe how lucky they were, and some clubs still don’t understand what happened during the last Euroleague tour.

First of all, Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius, which won three of its first four games, lost to Unicaja Malaga by only 2 points (71-73) and failed to make the Top 16. If Lietuvos Rytas, which finished with a 4-6 record, grabbed the win, they would have been walking through the Top 16 doors.

Regal Barcelona, the Group A leader, ended the regular season without a loss and became first team to do this since the ’04-05 season. Regal Barcelona’s guard Ricky Rubio recorded his first career double-double and showed why he was the fifth pick of the 2009 NBA Draft.

But the most interesting and dramatic game was played in Istanbul, there Zalgiris Kaunas managed to win against Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul and get the last ticket to the Top 16.

GAME OF THE WEEK

There’s no doubt — the biggest sensation of the tour was how Zalgiris Kaunas — which won only one game of its first eight — made a miracle and make the Top 16. Nevertheless, Marcus Brownafter the ninth tour, Zalgiris made the right move – they changed the head coach and won two last regular season games.

In last game of the regular season, there was a lot of drama. Zalgiris need to win by 6 points to secure a place in the Top 16, and they did it. The Lithuanians had the lead the entire way, but, at the end of the game, Fenerbahce Ulker reduced Zalgiris advantage to five. Nonetheless, Marcus Brown, Zalgiris’ 35-year-old guard, made a last second buzzer-beater, and Kaunas won the game by 8 points (76-68).

“We knew that it was going to be a very tough game. Roko Ukic made it harder for us, but we remained focused in the game in the hard moments especially at the end of the game,” said game’s hero Marcus Brown, who scored 17 points, grabbed 5 rebounds and dished out 4 assists.

For Zalgiris ex-Duke guard Martynas Pocius scored 18 points, Tadas Klimavičius added 13, Mantas Kalnietis 11.

Fenerbahce Ulker’s star, ex-Milwaukee Bucks guard Roko Ukic ended the game with 20 points, 6 boards and 6 assists. Gordan Giricek scored 16 points and grabbed 8 boards. Tarence Kinsey scored 11.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

This week’s MVP award was shared by Regal Barcelona’s youngster Ricky Rubio and CSKA Moscow’s leader Ramunas Siskauskas. Both guards ended the game with 33 index ranking points.

Ricky Rubio scored 14 points and dished a career-high 10 assists in match against Montepaschi Siena. Ramunas Siskauskas, the ’07-08 Euroleague MVP, made 21 points, grabbed 7 balls and dished out 4 assists.

The Top 16 will start January 27 and this season’s greatest 16 teams will compete for one goal: the Euroleague championship.

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  • http://slamonline.com/ Ryne Nelson

    Big win for the Lithuanians. Congrats, E.

  • me

    FIRST HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

  • mike

    rickyyyyyyyyyyyy

  • http://www.realultimatepower.net doyouwantmore

    Ricky Rubio’s nickname should be “The Question”

  • Jack

    Career-high 10 assists? This IS because he doesn’t get much playing time, yes?

  • http://slamonline.com Erildas Budraitis

    Last season he averaged just 13.2 minutes per game in Euroleague. This Euroleague season he is averaging about 21 minutes per game. Of course, it’s career-high in Euroleague games, not in whole his career.

  • http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?sid=0ca338e80b18dfa30865c19f06f9d732&gid=67351162637&ref=search minikidd

    did anyone see rubio going between the defenders legs around 2:40? damn that was nice..

  • http://myspace.com/weezyleezy337 GametimeWeezy

    wow this kid plays with some flair, dont he….also showin me some tuffness i didnt think he had!

  • http://www.twitter.com/NotebookNick thesubwayconnection

    Terrance Morris must love playing with him :P

  • http://slamonline.com/ Ryne Nelson

    I went crazy when I saw that, minikidd. Ricky’s for real!

  • LA Huey

    i hear you, minikidd. two more years…

  • David

    pretty funny when that guy airballed a free throw, too…

  • anen

    i like sideshow bob’s reaction he looked so fustrated

  • Reflex

    Ricky’s handles are as good as it gets, hopefully it translates well if/when he gets to the NBA, lmao at the free throw airball, not clutch!

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

    Big win for MAROUSI that marked the first time this small team that comes from a small neighborhood in Athens is making the top-16 teams in Europe….As i already mentioned Maccabi is a much weaker team than i thought, it will take a miracle for them to make it to the final-4. It will be very interesting to see next rounds’ battle between the perenial European champions (Panathinaikos) and this years regular season best team(Barcelona) since the two teams will propably be in the same group. Olympiakos will also have a tough one since we will propably face Siena,the fifth best team in Europe IMO.I have a strange feeling that ,once again, Barcelona will not take the European championship…

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

    EUROLEAGUE POWER RANKINGS: Having in mind the performance of all the teams in the first round of the regular season, their overall talent and some little secrets(example: Obradovic’ teams always have a slamp between December and February, CSKA is much more valnrable this year than what his first place shows,etc) i give you the top-10 favorites to WIN the Euroleague if the final-4 was to take place tomorrow:

    1)BARCELONA
    2)PANATHINAIKOS
    3)REAL MADRID
    4)OLYMPIAKOS
    5)SIENA
    6)CSKA
    7)CAJA LABORAL
    8)KHIMKI
    9)UNICAJA
    10)MACCABI
    4)OLYMPI

  • http://Www.lkz.ch/basket Darksaber

    Damnit!! I was so pulling for Rytas to advance. Watched them during last season’s Eurocup championship run and really like their play. Too bad Eidson now plays for Maccabi.

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

    @dARKSABER….:at least now you can claim that AlbA was beaten by one of the top-16 teams in Europe..!!!!(even if it has 1/10 of its budget and 1/1000 of its supporters….)

  • http://www.luketynan.blogspot.com litetitan

    That Gaines kidd is like the 2010 version of Nick Van Exel.

  • Yesse

    No, Jack, It’s, because in europe the assist’s are not like in the Nba.In Nba you almost get assist all the time, because if he score’s later after the pass it’s still an assist.In europe it has to be an alley oop or just leading straight to score without any crossover’s, spin’s.Even a pump fake might take the assist.Im not 100% sure about that.

  • Salaner

    So Panathinaikos has a “slump”, huh, but you know they’re better than Real Madrid, and so you place them ahead of Madrid in your power rankings, Diamantidis? Despite the fact Real won the group? What a joke. Give this some thought: Madrid beat Panathinaikos soundly right in the middle of a FOUR-GAME ACB LEAGUE LOSING STREAK. Is that enough of a slump for you? Don’t you get the sneaking suspicion that Real is better than PAO?

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

    Panathinaikos did what every super power usually does: win every opponent in its group inside-out(just like Barcelona) something that Real,Olympiakos,CSKA and the other pretenders could not..Panathinaikos only lost the game in Athens to Real and the game to Olympiakos in Piraeus(greek league),basically the only real teams it faced through its anual Obradovic slump. The game in Madrid doesn’t count, Panathinaikos had the control of the game up until the moment the officials turned in “2009 Berlin final” mode(which,although unfair,it is “ok” having in mind what Real represents to the Euroleague organisers). Sergio Scariolo said in November that the three teams,Panathinaikos/Barcelona/Olymiakos, are one level above everybody else talent-wise this year (i said exactly the same thing in August…). Don’t think that Mesina cannot see what Scariolo and an average fun (me) can. He is trying to strenghten Real’s (relatively)weak roster all the time (Yaric, Milicic,etc).

  • kh

    thanks for posting the video!

  • http://www.twitter.com/Th3_R3al_Chris Th3_R3al_Chris

    He’s gonna have a difficult transition from Euroleagues to the NBA. Just watching this video it’s clear how much a faster pace and more physical play we have over here, and that is with all of the rules to allow scored to be run up this century. If he stays there throughout his Wolves contract, it may take him another four or five years until he’s NBA ready. Does he have the mental stability to withstand not being an elite player in an elite league after years of being spoken of as a prodigy in Europe? Time will tell.

  • http://www.twitter.com/Th3_R3al_Chris Th3_R3al_Chris

    Any league where Roki Ukic and Gordon Giricek are big time scorers is suspect.

  • http://staticseth.blogspot.com/ Seth

    Nice to see Euroleague on NBATV, even if it’s only for Rubio, who is all I care about anyway over there. Now just have to wait for him to jump the pond again…

  • http://fjkld.com Jukai

    Yesse is correct. Assists are INCREDIBLY hard to come by in FIBA rules. That’s why Rubio can only average 6 or so assists and lead the ACB in assists. Getting ten is pretty insane.

  • http://fjkld.com Jukai

    Ramunas Siskauskas, Europe’s Vince Carter, once again getting credit for having a ludicrous team and putting up alright numbers.

  • RedRum

    In Fiba an assist counts only when the receiver of the pass has NOT taken a dribble after the pass. In the NBA it is just the last pass before the basket. So to translate into NBA, just double the FIBA assists (maybe a bit less, 75%). So Rubio averages about 10-12 assists, and 10 is about 18-20.

  • Waters1981

    Is Barcelona not dominating in anything right now? between footy and now this? On a side note, what do you think Real Madrid spends on players for basketball? And what would be the biggest transfer fee ever paid? Obviously they went bonkers this past summer with signing Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema, etc. and how did that effect their basketball team and spending money? Not just their basketball team but the rest of the club too.

  • RedRum

    the difference between Barca and Real is the mentality of creating a team. Real buys teams. They have spent lots of money in basketball as well, getting Messina as a coach and serious talend. Barca creates teams from its youth development system. In the Champions League game they won against Manchester, 7 out of the 11 players that won that final were from their youth teams.

  • http://myspace.com/weezyleezy337 GametimeWeezy

    Rubio is gonna be nice, im doing a 180 and officially now a believer. Euroleague is still like soccer with a basketball tho….u see all the complaining and flopping and pretending their hurt and stuff. NBA is gettin like that too kinda but not that bad. That video was like soccer. A buncha Ginobilis lol

  • http://slamonline.com Big D

    I have no idea how Ricky Rubio is suppose to play with Flynn. Ricky needs the ball at all times to do his magic. Put Flynn at the #2 and you have a huge defensive liability. Even offensively, Flynn is not a pure shooter. Jennings and Rubio would have been even a better combo because Jennings is such a good shooter.

  • therighttoremainsalient

    I have my Juventus Rubio jersey. Now we play the waiting game.

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

    @the righttoremain…:Rubio played for Juve????!!!!! Together with Bufon….??!!!!(no offence, Juventus is a football club,one of the greatests in the world)

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

    I have “cryied” many times here for the evil Eurolegue organisers(rightfully most times i think) BUT i have to admit that the draw (that took place before 10 minutes) is the best possible for Olympiakos and “ok” for Panathinaikos. Not that good for Real though…Best thing is that we avoid the possibility to have the two greek teams face-off before the final-4. I am preparing myself for a nice weekend in Paris from 7-9 May.
    Go PAPALOUKAS!!
    GO JOSH!!!
    GO BIG SOFO!!!
    GO VASILOPOULOS!!!
    GO KLEIZA!!!
    GO BOUROUSIS&MILOS!!!!!
    GO OLYMPIAKOS!!!!!!

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

    P.S..: Having an Olympiakos fun signing with the name “Diamantidis” is the equivelant of having Bill Simmons signing with the name KOBE BRYANT….thank god nobody here is accustomed with European bball,YET…

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

    According to the format,at least 2 of the top-5 teams in Europe CANNOT make the final-4 this year(Real,Panathinaikos,Barcelona & Siena are all at the same side of the bracket that only gives 2 final-4 tickets).Really strange….

  • http://www.jewelzlopez.com -Mas-

    FCBarcelona with Ricky Rubio and “Bomba Navarro among other star have put together a 25!!!!! Game winning streak in the Spanish ACB league and the Euroleague. That 25 W’s in a row. So the best PG and SG in Europe are making it happen. Why would they want to be in Memphis or Minnesota? Barcelona is the best at both hoops and goals. FCB all the way!
    -Mas-

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

    @Mas…..: “the best PG and SG in Europe are making it happen”…….dream on.

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