Euroleague Regular Season: Week 23

[Gman365]

Berlin carving up Milan's defense all day long...

Does Milan have another 4th quarter miracle in them or what ?

[Picek]

Not to sound overconfident but Efes winning all its remaining games is quite a possibility now.

now that you have said it, watch out for Zalgiris tomorrow and them winning in Istanbul.
all the elements are there, Efes winning against CSKA after 14 straight defeats.
Ataman defeating Itoudis for the first time ever.
great time to enter the game with lower intensity then needed.
and once you do enter it like that it's hard to crawl out of it.
no one expects Zalgiris to win even if they are the second best in form team currently coming out from a confidence boosting easy win plus Jasikevicius has been beating Ataman in Istanbul last two seasons.
I would say Zalgiris has pretty solid chances of beating Efes tomorrow.

[Efesdxb]

now that you have said it, watch out for Zalgiris tomorrow and them winning in Istanbul.
all the elements are there, Efes winning against CSKA after 14 straight defeats.
Ataman defeating Itoudis for the first time ever.
great time to enter the game with lower intensity then needed.
and once you do enter it like that it's hard to crawl out of it.
no one expects Zalgiris to win even if they are the second best in form team currently coming out from a confidence boosting easy win plus Jasikevicius has been beating Ataman in Istanbul last two seasons.
I would say Zalgiris has pretty solid chances of beating Efes tomorrow.

Totally agree...

[ZaliaBalta]

Nik Stauskas shows his inner JR Smith.. @2:45

To be fair, the score table took some extra seconds to turn the score to 69-69. I wonder whether it was the same with the score table in the arena. Still, this would not help Nik to think of any kind of legitimate excuses

[Deschain]

efes is lucky that we kicked pedoulakis out. he was the only one that easily destroyed your team this season,even with larkin scoring 30. the only away loss for efes this season

This is why I said, when Efes beat Barça, that Efes still needed to beat PAO at OAKA.
I don't think there is anything magical about OAKA but it is definitely a very tough place to play at, particularly for Turkish teams and Ataman.
If you're losing even to a mediocre PAO (and to a mediocre OLY at SEF for that matter), that shows that you're not mentally ready for the challenges to come.
I'm not saying that PAO is mediocre this year but the way Efes lost that game with Micic breaking down completely, was not a pleasant precursor for the remainder of the season.

But after seening Efes vs Madrid and CSKA I can say that my worries are alleviated to an extent.

now that you have said it, watch out for Zalgiris tomorrow and them winning in Istanbul.
all the elements are there, Efes winning against CSKA after 14 straight defeats.
Ataman defeating Itoudis for the first time ever.
great time to enter the game with lower intensity then needed.
and once you do enter it like that it's hard to crawl out of it.
no one expects Zalgiris to win even if they are the second best in form team currently coming out from a confidence boosting easy win plus Jasikevicius has been beating Ataman in Istanbul last two seasons.
I would say Zalgiris has pretty solid chances of beating Efes tomorrow.

I agree that Zalgiris has a considerable chance tomorrow.
Playing vs CSKA and vs Zalgiris are two different things, I'd like to see Efes vs a motivated organized opposition. (Not saying that CSKA isn't)
Micic is probably going to have a bad game, as he almost always does in the second game of double weeks.

Yet, I believe the talent gap is too much and even if Micic plays catastrophically, Efes still has the personnel to match a challenge from Zalgiris.

[vivo]

yeah i was thinking a win would be great exactly for this reason. He'd have developed a complex soon otherwise.

Ataman and developing a complex? Nah, there's no way such a thing would happen.

Congrats to Efes, I wasn't able to see the second half but it looks like the 1st seed is locked right now

[maccabeo]

without diba-woulters, mta became individual wil/(and rarely dorsey)show, offensively
so i can say mta-kimki is really a wil-shved challenge
not a great compliment to sfairo,who was guilthy of jenuary adds, not asking for better players, and who actually is not searching for a b/c/d offensive plans but wilbekin show

[maccabeo]

Nik Stauskas shows his inner JR Smith.. @2:45

To be fair, the score table took some extra seconds to turn the score to 69-69. I wonder whether it was the same with the score table in the arena. Still, this would not help Nik to think of any kind of legitimate excuses

it reminded me melli absurd faulth in milan-mta playoffs series, that turned a domintaed match by milano giving us an irration victory and factually the f4.

[janketa]

The only problem I saw in Efes game last night was rebound and rim protection. Moerman was awful and at least 3 or 4 offensive rebounds were over him.
Beaubois is the worst defender in Efes and it was disgusting watching his defense on James shoot last second of first half. With arms lowered on one of the best clutch shooters in EL

On the other side Balbay played rock hard defense at the end on the same player and that's what his role needs to be.

One more notice on Balbay.. to be honest he has talent for ball handling and explosiveness during penetration, but finishing is the problem. the easiest layups he misses at the end. He must work on it.

[Levenspiel]

And Ataman ticks a bit differently. He surely wants to humiliate Fener in any case but he is also very patriotic. I am sure hell help Fener if its needed. A final four final between two turkish teams would be every turks dream and considering how weak real is i would choose Real over Efes if i was Fenerbahce.

man, you broke interbasket yesterday with this comment. Why do you make such strange statements?
Ataman does not care about helping Fener, I guarantee you that. He is not that patriotic . that game might be a formality by then for both sides anyway.
and the Real bit is at least funny.

[Levenspiel]

This is why I said, when Efes beat Barça, that Efes still needed to beat PAO at OAKA.
I don't think there is anything magical about OAKA but it is definitely a very tough place to play at, particularly for Turkish teams and Ataman.
If you're losing even to a mediocre PAO (and to a mediocre OLY at SEF for that matter), that shows that you're not mentally ready for the challenges to come.
I'm not saying that PAO is mediocre this year but the way Efes lost that game with Micic breaking down completely, was not a pleasant precursor for the remainder of the season.

But after seening Efes vs Madrid and CSKA I can say that my worries are alleviated to an extent.

I agree with you, but consider that Efes was on the 2nd leg of a back to back road trip there. I think it was an acceptable loss.
I'd not pick PAO at the playoffs, or any of the top 6 for that matter. that's why top 2 is the best place to finish.

[Levenspiel]

Ataman and developing a complex? Nah, there's no way such a thing would happen.

Congrats to Efes, I wasn't able to see the second half but it looks like the 1st seed is locked right now

he's a transformed man now.
Seriously, though, he has something against Itoudis. Remember he left the press conference after the first game saying "I made too many mistakes, I do not feel well". Some people assumed he was being protective of Micic, but he really made a few bad decisions that day. Even though it was James's outstanding game, I believe he actually blamed himself for the loss.

if he lost by a hail-mary 3 or something today, he'd be irreparable.

[Toruko]

Horrible one on one defense of Sloukas and de Colo but its more Sloukas. Stupid and unnecessary turnovers, no outside shot. Hardly believable that this is a ZOC team.

[vivo]

After the end of Alba game, Obradovic once again uses the big men lineup:

Sloukas - Datome - Williams - Vesely - Thomas

Is it out of desperation or a planned move? Will we see this in (if we be there) playoffs? I don't know.

[Toruko]

Fener shorts get beaten too easily, the bigs must help then and this creates a big rotation failure. Williams is not on his man very often, weak side is always wide open. really horrible.