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Photo: ZUMAPRESS – Scanpix
Photo ZUMAPRESS – Scanpix
When the Euroleague ended last season, Istanbul’s Anadolu Efes were the saddest – they had 24 wins after 28 rounds and were without a doubt the best team in the league. Still, it looks like Ergin Ataman’s troop is ready to make up for last season this year.
Team leaders
5.0
REB
3.7
DREB
1.3
OREB
5.8
REB
3.5
DREB
2.3
OREB
The beginning of the season sent bad signals to the team, and the first round of the regular season “Anadolu Efes” turned into a real disappointment: 8 wins and 11th place in the standings. Such an uninspiring game from last season’s leaders opened mouths to skeptics, but could everything have changed so dramatically after the summer, when the entire core of the team is preserved?
The Istanbul club now argue that the first part of the season was just a misunderstanding and that it only took them time to regain concentration from last year (9 wins in 10 matches in the second round and this is their only goal this year) to win. the Euroleague for the first time in the club’s history.
Kaunas “Žalgiris” on Friday at 7.30pm. In Turkey, we challenge not only the hottest team in the Euroleague, but, as we can say at the moment, and the best, whose recent victories against Piraeus Olympiacos, Fenerbach Istanbul, Valencia and CSKA Moscow have won a average of 25.3 points, shooting after 95.3 points.
The BasketNews.lt website reviews the changes in the Anadolu Efes game in the second half of the season, the fantastic form of Vasily Micich and the reasons for the dominance of the Ataman army.
Developers, freedom and triples
Reuters Photo – Scanpix
In the 2018-2019 season, Ataman discovered a recipe for success in the square by competing with three creators, which led them all the way to the Euroleague final. This mechanism was even more successful when Micic, Shane Larkin and Krunoslav Simon or Rodrigue Beaubois were in the square last year.
However, at the start of the season, only Simonas showed stable results from the four developers listed: Larkin, who had a hard time entering after injury, did not look like himself, and Micičius’ good performance changed the blanks. .
Such insecure play by the Anadolu Efes leaders broke trust and Ataman had to model the game differently: 3-point shooting was far less, and defense-focused center Bryant Dunston carried the heavy burden of attack. .
Everything started to change from the start of the second round of the regular season: the 3-point hit rate remained similar (around 38%), but his Anadolu Efes started shooting 4.8 more during the match (from 23.1 to 27.9 ).
Turkey’s flagship basketball game has resurfaced last season’s freedom based on Pikenrolais, after which the individual dominance of the basketball players on the perimeter of Anadolu Efes allows to find several consequences of the attack: passes to great heights, game 1 against 1 until the end or long throw after dodge.
Most importantly, in the second round of the Euroleague regular season, there was no game where both Micich and Larkin had a black day, and when at least one of them is hard to stop, the other players have a lot of freedom. .
Here, Sertačo star Šanli has been shining on lately, which is unlikely to be of much use in another EuroLeague team, but Anadolu Efes takes advantage of it a lot. Pikenrolo, both of them Pikenpopo situations. In the last three games, the center scored 15.6 points and 20.6 utility points in 24 minutes.
Better team than last year?
“Everyone asks me if we have reached the level of last year. No, we are better than last season, “Ataman said after a landslide victory over CSKA.
And looking at Anadolu Efes’ current game, it’s hard to disagree with that statement, especially looking at the defense figures.
Last season, Anadolu Efes surprised his rivals with an incredible attack of more than 42 percent. But from our side of the field, not everything went well and we can remember the hard-won match against “Žalgiris” at home, when the Kaunas players made 19 3-pointers and scored 91 points.
Anadolu Efes’ current game is more versatile and while the three-point hit is a bit worse, this year’s wins start at least with defense: 53 points missed Oly, 74 Fenerbahce and the demoralized CSKA scored just 28 points in The first half. of the party.
Since round 22, when the ongoing series of victories began, Anadolu Efes demonstrates not only the best offensive but also defensive ranking, and during this section we can see powerful indicators on both sides of the field.
During the winning series, Anadolu Efes attacked from distance by 42.8 percent. accuracy (score 4), from the two-point zone 65.3 percent. (1 result), forces opponents to make a mistake 16.5 times (1 result) and seizes 9 balls (2 result).
On defense, basketball players on the perimeter of the Istanbul team try to break through barriers themselves, and they also often apply risks, sometimes coming to the rescue even from the strong side. For the third year in a row, the core plays very well at the three-point line, taking over the other’s people, and seasoned goalkeepers like Dunston and Chris Singleton add a lot of peace on their side of the field.
NBA talent Micičius
BNS photo
Last year, Larkin broke one Euroleague record after another, earning nearly 26 utility points and was an integral part of Anadolu Efes’ victories, but this year he is no longer the No.1 person in Istanbul. For now.
The fact that Anadolu Efes is now more of Micicius than Larkin’s team was demonstrated by a match with CSKA: the American stepped onto the floor for the first time in the 10th minute, replacing the Serbian who started the duel in the first five, and then the Turkish club had already crushed their rivals 31:11.
Having started the season strong, Micičius is now the true leader of Anadolu Efes, recording incredible statistics in the last three matches: 24.7 points and 30.7 utility points, and between these matches there was a phenomenal performance of 37 points and 44 points. efficiency in the Serbian Derby.
The 27-year-old plays with tremendous confidence and does not hesitate to attack the basket after dodge, and his freedom opens the hands of the entire team and currently allows him to show the best basketball in the league. Of course, there are games like before against Oly (-1 point), but Larkin is always close, who later scored 32 points, and this tandem makes this team a difficult force to stop. Like Batman with Robin, you never know who will be the main standard bearer that night.
Interestingly, in the last 10 games, Micičius has made five performances of at least 25 utility points in the Euroleague, and only Nando De Colo (6 of those performances) is superior to him in this section of the season.
It is clear that Micic is now one of the best, if not the best, players in Europe, and the idea is that the Serb will want to try his luck in the NBA, at least for one season, where the Oklahoma Thunder have the rights to it.
Seeing the powerful physical preparation of the former Žalgiris, the self-confidence, the strict rules learned from Šarūnas Jasikevičius, which were wonderfully adapted to Ataman’s improvisation, it does not seem that Micičius could not shine beyond the Atlantic, especially at the club Thunder, where he spends 25 minutes on the parquet Theo Maledon, former talent of Wilerban ASVEL.
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