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On Friday, this year’s basketball leaders will examine Kaunas “Žalgiris”, who went to Turkey to play matchday 29 of the Euroleague.
Quieter – Barcelona
Last year, five teams had secured playoff tickets six rounds before the end of the Euroleague regular season. This season, the leaders have a smaller advantage over the average and neither team has a ticket to the quarterfinals.
Even first place Barcelona (who won 20 out of 28 games) have yet to complete the paperwork, but Šarūnas Jasikevičius students would be kicked out of the top eight unless a fantastic turnaround occurs.
Seven more teams approached the goal: CSKA in Moscow (18 of 27), Olimpia in Milan, Bayern in Munich (18 of 28 each), Anadolu Efes in Istanbul (17 of 27), Real in Madrid, Fenerbahce in Istanbul ”(17 of 28) and Zenit de Saint Petersburg (16 of 27).
Kaunas “Žalgiris” is looking to beat at least one of these teams, winning 15 of 28 matches and ranking ninth. The two Spanish teams, Vitoria Baskonia and Valencia, tenth also lost the opportunity (14 of 28 each).
For other teams, the hope of playing in the playoffs may have to be postponed to next year, and the three outsiders Chimki, Crvena Zvezda from Belgrade and ALBA from Berlin no longer have even arithmetic chances.
Decline and rebirth
When the pandemic came to a halt last Euroleague season in early March last year, Anadolu Efes had won 24 of 28 matches and was quite strong in first place.
In all of last season’s cut, the Istanbul club suffered just four defeats. This season, Anadolu Efes suffered their fourth defeat in the round of 16 in mid-November. And after the first round, Anadolu Efes had only 8 wins and the team did not reach the top eight.
However, the low spot in the middle of the regular season, as it turned out, meant nothing. Since the New Year, Istanbul basketball players have won 9 out of 10 matches, with the only failure in the second half of October being their away game against Zenit. Anadolu Efes is currently chasing a string of six wins.
In both tournaments, the Euroleague and the Turkish League, Anadolu Efes won 19 of the 21 games this year.
The team led by Ergin Ataman does not win, but often crushes even the most powerful clubs in the Euroleague: Fenerbahçe was defeated by 28 points (106: 74), CSKA – by 30 points (100: 70). Since the beginning of January, Anadolu Efes has won up to five Euroleague matches by more than 20 points.
“I keep asking if we are already playing the way we played last year. No, we are playing better now than we did last year,” said coach E. Atamanas last week after an impressive victory against club CSKA, who believes that basketball players are under his leadership perfectly played various elements of the game.
The season started without a leader
Anadolu Efes’ difficult start to the season is due to the injury of team leader Shane Larkin. The American was treated in her homeland, spent the entire preparation period and arrived in Europe at the beginning of the season. Even contributing to the team, Sh.Larkin played much worse in the first few weeks than he did last season. And last season, he scored 22.2 points and was the most productive basketball player in the Euroleague.
Although Sh Larkin was slow to accelerate, lately he has not been disappointed. Since the new year, the 182cm tall defender has scored more than 10 points in every game and is back in the top ten most productive players in the Euroleague. Sh.Larkin scores an average of 14.7 points and ranks ninth.
Vasilije Micičius, another Anadolu Efes defender, is playing even more effectively this season. The former Žalgiris player earns 16.3 points and is sixth on this indicator. V.Micičius is also fifth in terms of fouls caused (average of 4.7) and seventh in terms of effective passes (average of 5).
The Croatian Krunoslav Simon (11 points on average), the French Rodrigue Beaubois (9.6 points) and the German Tibor Pleiss (8.6 points) are the biggest assistants of the Istanbul team when it comes to attacking the two leaders.
The role of the Turks is minimal.
After the Anadolu Efes club signed a contract with the non-established Bosnian Janan Musa in January, the team includes up to ten foreigners.
Turkish basketball players have almost no seats in the twelve. Only Sertac Shanli (7 points on average) and Dogušas Balbay (1.7 points) regularly play in the Euroleague. Four Turks compete in Anadolu Efes’ bid for the occasional twelfth place (in case of injury or coach Etaman’s decision not to register J. Musa, who has yet to score a point during this season’s Euroleague match).
However, the Turkish contribution to the Anadolu Efes club, in addition to the naturalized basketball players, is higher than in the Fenerbahçe team. This season, the Turks representing Anadolu Efes scored 225 points (10.1% of the team’s points) and Fenerbahçe only 110 points (4.9%).
“Žalgiris” won convincingly
Žalgiris also took advantage of the fact that Anadolu Efes’ game was not sustainable at the start of the season. In the first match held on October 15, the Kaunas team convincingly defeated the Istanbul basketball players by 89:73.
Kaunas dominated almost every match and never allowed the guests to weigh the result. “Žalgiris” was already leading 25:16 after the first half and survived a few difficult minutes only in the second quarter, when “Anadolu Efes” tied the result 35:35 for the only time. However, the hosts scored 6 points in a row before the break, extended the streak at the beginning of the third quarter and took a 46:35 double-digit lead and the opponents broke down.
Nigel Hayes (17 points), Lukas Lekavičius, Marius Grigonis (12 each), Artūras Milaknis and Joffrey Lauvergne (10 each), Anadolu Efes – Bryantas Dunston (20), Krunoslav Simonas (16) played more effectively at Žalgiris and Rodrigue Beaubois (12).
Istanbul team coach Erginas Atamanas was very disappointed by former Žalgiris Vasilije Micičius, who made just 3 of 9 shots and scored 7 points.
In total, these teams played 17 games in the modern Euroleague. “Žalgiris” won 10 victories through them.
Slipped on a flat surface
Although Anadolu Efes have mercilessly crushed Europe’s strongest clubs in recent weeks, sometimes even the best of them slip on roughly equal ground. That’s what happened to the Istanbul team last weekend, when they suddenly lost to Turkish league team Afyon 85: 103 (J. Musa 18, S. Shanli 13, T. Pleiss 12) on Sunday. Lithuanian Evaldas Kairys played useful in Afyon’s ranks, scoring 10 points.
V.Micičius missed this match because of the legion limit, and Sh.Larkinas was injured midway through the third quarter. At the time the American was injured, his team was only 58:62 behind, but when Sharkin left the field, Afyon scored 13 points in a row, increasing the lead to 75:58 and the end of the match was decided.
Anadolu Efes finished the game without coach E.Ataman, who was charged with two technical fouls in the middle of the third quarter, with his team lagging 58:64.
Anadolu Efes has won all 22 Super League matches so far, so the first failure will probably not affect the tournament table. There are 7 rounds left until the end of the regular season, and second-placed Karşıyaka from Izmir is 4 points behind (this team has won 19 victories, but has 1 penalty point).
Fenerbahçe Istanbul, with 17 victories, are fighting for second place, while other teams are far behind. After 13 matches, Tofaş from Bursa, Türk Telekom from Ankara and Beşiktaş from Istanbul won (this team was also awarded 1 penalty point), followed by Afyon, Darussafaka from Istanbul and Gaziantep.
Aliaga’s “Petkim”, trained by Kęstutis Kemzūra, in which Šarūnas Vasiliauskas plays, won 9 wins and ranks 10th.
Turks have opportunities too
There is a limit of five legionnaires in the Turkish national competition, so Anadolu Efes does not play in the strongest lineup in the super league. It is true that Sh. Larkin, who has a Turkish passport and plays for the national team, is not considered a legionary.
Although the players are constantly changing, foreigners play the most useful in the Turkish league: A. Moerman (13.4 points, 8.1 rebounds), V. Micicius (13.2 points, 4.4 res.), K. Simonas (11.6 points, 4.3 res.) And R. Beaubois (10.8 points). T.Plissas (14.7 points in 7 runs) and J.Musa (13.4 points in 5 runs), who played a small game, are trying hard.
However, the contribution of the Turks to the country’s championships is much higher than that of the Euroleague, with B. Tuncer (10.5 points) and S. Shanli (8.3 points) standing out.
