BasketNews continues the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague beat edition. Here, you’ll be able to find all the info you need about what happened in the latest EuroLeague round.
Zvezda’s rock-solid defense, Milan’s fightback, successful Fenerbahce’s finish, renewed Efes’ struggles, Real’s composure, milestones, worst start – all of that and more in EuroLeague’s Round 8 beat.
EuroLeague’s beat Round 8
EMBARRASSING. Panathinaikos scored only 48 points in the loss against Crvena Zvezda. A performance that coach Priftis defined as ‘embarrassing.’ “It was a bad night, maybe the worst for us so far,” coach Priftis explained.
TOP DEFENSE. Zvezda confirmed once again that their defense is the best in EuroLeague so far. The Serbian side is allowing only 67.2 points per game so far, and that lockdown style was once again on display against Panathinaikos.
BACK ON TRACK. After three heartbreaking straight losses, Fenerbahce got back on track with an important win on the road against CSKA Moscow.
NOT ENOUGH. Will Clyburn had 26 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and 34 PIR in the loss against Fener. For Clyburn, Fener recall good memories as he had his career-high against them back in April with 34 points.
SWEET REVENGE. Olimpia Milan got a little bit of revenge against Barcelona after losing all the three matches played against them last season. Coach Messina’s team is now at the top of the EuroLeague after the 75-70 win against Barcelona.
PAINFUL LOSS. Coach Jasikevicius explained that the loss against Milan is painful to deal with.
“It’s a very painful loss because we didn’t have a very good attitude, especially from our main players. We didn’t have any reaction from the game in Tel Aviv. We lost exactly the same way in Tel Aviv, by having a horrible first quarter”.
THE DYNAMIC DUO. Once again, Chris Jones and Elie Okobo were the main factors in ASVEL’s win. Jones had 25 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 27 PIR.
Meanwhile, Okobo finished with 17 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 18 PIR. So far, Jones and Okobo have combined for 284 points in the season, 45% of the points scored by ASVEL.
NOT HITTING. Both ASVEL and UNICS had a bad night from outside. The French side shot 5/18 from three-point, while UNICS did even worse, shooting 6/29. Neither of them reached the 30% from three.
X-FACTOR. Mindaugas Kuzminskas had a breakout performance, leading victorious Zenit over Anadolu Efes with 15 points (2/3 2PT, 3/6 3PT, 2/2 FT), 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, and 22 PIR.
“Honestly, I am really happy for our team today,” Kuzminskas said post-game. “We played as a team; 19 assists is a good number for us. I am especially glad that when they were coming back in the game, we showed our character, made some big shots, and finally we won.”
RECORD. Chris Singleton entered the game at the start of the second quarter, and at that moment, set the EuroLeague all-time record for consecutive games played.
Singleton has never missed a EuroLeague game ever since he made his competition debut in October 2015. He has made 210 appearances in his career so far and took sole possession on this all-time least, breaking a record held by Nikos Zisis. The Greek guard played 209 consecutive games between the 2006-07 and 2018-19 seasons.
INCONVENIENT OPPONENT. Ergin Ataman’s head-to-head record against Xavi Pascual teams fell to 1-11 yesterday.
No strange, Efes coach seemed frustrated after suffering another home loss: “It is a very bad loss for us. I don’t want to pick a specific aspect of our game as the first thing to address because tonight, we were terrible in all aspects.”
RETURN. Zenit is also expecting their NBA trump card, Shabazz Napier, to return from injury. Pascual underlined that Napier’s 100% recovery is soon, but Zenit’s bench boss does not have any intentions to rush him back to court before he reaches full health.
“We are going day by day. I think we are in the last part of his recovery. But I think we need more than one week. We don’t want to put pressure on the player. All the people are working hard to help him recover.
I don’t like to put pressure on players in these situations. He must be healthy when he is back,” the Spanish mastermind concluded.
WORST START. ALBA Berlin handed Zalgiris Kaunas their eighth loss in a row. That is the worst start in the Lithuanian club’s history.
“Zalgiris is 0-8, and it is really bad. It’s frustrating, but I believe in work, and I will try to find the space for new players,” said Jure Zdovc after defeat.
SOFT, FANCY PLAYERS. Zalgiris head coach also emphasized the lack of aggressiveness in the team.
“This team is not built to be aggressive if you look at the characteristics of the players. One of the reasons why we have problems with the fouls is because we don’t play aggressive defense. When we make contact, referees call fouls,” told Zdovc.
“From my experience, in the last 5 games, referees let you fight if you play strong. But our players are softer, fancier,” added Zalgiris bench boss.
ZERO. Head coach of ALBA Berlin Israel Gonzalez didn’t ask a single timeout against Zalgiris. The German powerhouse led from start to finish, never letting Zalgiris be in front.
DEFENSE WINS GAMES. OLY had a convincing win over Monaco, allowing their opponents to score 65 points. Mike James was limited to 7 points (1/7 2PT, 1/4 3PT, 2/3 FT), having 5 turnovers and 3 PIR in his resume.
“It’s obvious that our defensive approach for three quarters was fantastic,” Olympiacos coach Bartzokas commented post-game. “It was amazing. And although we had a bad shooting day – we missed a lot of free throws; we missed a lot of open shots – through our defensive approach, we won this game.”
GLUE GUY. Georgios Bartzokas talked about the newcomer Quincy Acy and stressed his important abilities.
“I wanted him both as a player and a name. Even if he played at point guard, we would still sign him. I tried to bring him to Barcelona when I was coaching there, but it didn’t work.
“He’s a player that ties the team together with the way he plays and defends. He’s very supportive to his teammates,” underlined the Greek specialist.
WINNING/LOSING STREAK. Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv extended their winning streak to five by taking down Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz. For the Basques, this defeat was the third in a row.
STAY HUMBLE. Ioannis Sfairopoulos spoke post-game regarding the need to remain down-to-earth: “We need to stay humble and continue to work and improve our game. We are so early in the season, and it’s a long season.”
“The sky’s the limit. If we stay together and we stay level-headed and not get too high from wins, who knows? We just hope we can keep running them off,” added Keenan Evans.
DRAMA KINGS. Bayern were up 76-72 with 2:13 to go, but Real - playing without Walter Tavares and Vincent Poirier, who both fouled out - found a way to finish the game on an 8-0 spurt. Guerschon Yabusele was the main contributor.
REBOUNDING MILESTONE. Othello Hunter entered the game ranked fifth on the all-time charts with 498 offensive rebounds. Coming off the bench, the Bayern big man needed less than 5 minutes on the floor to come down with a pair of offensive boards. He became only the fifth player ever to reach 500 offensive boards in his career.
Hunter finished the game with 5 offensive rebounds before leaving the game with an injury.
ONE POSSESSION. After losing a nail-bitter, Andrea Trinchieri admitted that small details decided the game’s outcome.
“We made a great run. In the end, just one possession was missing. We missed a shot under the basket. They passed the ball inside, and it was a foul, two free throws. I believe that we lost in a single possession. It is sad, but we fought and played a great second half,” said Trinchieri.
TOP Plays of Round 8
Records of Round 8
| PIR |  Will Clyburn | Will Clyburn (34) |
| Points |  Mario Hezonja | Mario Hezonja (27) |
| Rebounds |  Aleksandr Vezenkov |
Sasha Vezenkov (10)
|
| Assists |  Mike James | Mike James, Keenan Evans (8 each) |
| Steals |  Simone Fontecchio |
|
| Blocks |  Ben Lammers | Ben Lammers (3) |
| 3-pointers made | Simone Fontecchio | Simone Fontecchio, Conner Frankamp, Nando De Colo, Devon Hall, Janis Strelnieks (4 each) |
Results of Round 8
| 82-91 | ||
| 81-48 | ||
| 75-70 | ||
| 85-82 | ||
| 79-90 | ||
| 71-79 | ||
| 86-65 | ||
| 69-87 | ||
| 76-80 |
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