Euroleague Game Thread

[Stretch82]

Allen Iverson's team Besiktas will play today in the Eurocup vs the Serbian team Hemofarm Stada at 6:00 PM CET (12 PM EST).

http://www.eurocupbasketball.com/ulebcup/competition/results/showgame/preview?gamecode=68

Legal streaming link:

http://www.trt.net.tr/Canli/canli.aspx?kanal=TV2&slv=0

[bar203]

damnt, d'or fischer is really good!!
i'm so sorry maccabi let him go to real,we should have keep him!!

[karolis1221]

So now we have:
Caja laboral vs maccabi
Barca vs panathinaikos
Real madrid vs power electronics
Olympiacos vs montepaschi

Spaniards over the place who you think win and go to the semis?

[sergiio_88]

So now we have:
Caja laboral vs maccabi
Barca vs panathinaikos
Real madrid vs power electronics
Olympiacos vs montepaschi

Spaniards over the place who you think win and go to the semis?

Caja laboral vs Maccabi-----------------> 2-3 Maccabi
Barça vs Panathinaikos--------------------------> 3-1 Barça
Real Madrid vs Power Electronics Valencia-----------------> 2-3 Power Electronics Valencia
Olympiacos vs Montepaschi Siena------------------> 3-1 Olympiakos

[boogie-reke]

I'm hoping for a Barca-Maccabi final.

Maccabi are the only team in Europe capable of beating Barca.. they're both the best teams in Europe, only fitting they'll meet in the finals.

[karolis1221]

maccabi win easy.
i would give more credits for panathinaikos i think they can win over barca.
madrid real without coach will be destroyed by valencia.
Olympiakos lose to montepaschi if kaukenas recovers from his injury.

[TAUfan]

I see three open series (baskonia-maccabi, real-valencia and oly-siena) and one team sure in the final four: barcelona.... PAO need a miracle.

in my opinion the final four will be: baskonia, real madrid, barcelona and siena.

[droponov]

I'm hoping for a Barca-Maccabi final.

Maccabi are the only team in Europe capable of beating Barca.. they're both the best teams in Europe, only fitting they'll meet in the finals.

I agree about being the two best teams but I think Barcelona is a very clear favourite. Barcelona's strong guard play makes Maccabi's defense an unimportant factor.

[droponov]

I wrote my predictions in the other thread before the last top-16 games:

Quarter-Finals:

Olympiacos vs. Montepaschi - Will McCalleb play? If so, Siena in 4 games. If not, Oly in 5.

Pana/CajaLa/Rytas vs. Maccabi Electra - Maccabi will beat any of these teams. Caja Laboral would be their toughest opponent. Maccabi in 4 or 5.

Real Madrid vs. Fener or Valencia - Valencia needs to beat Fener by at least 3 points. I think Fener lacks mental toughness and chemistry, but Claver's missing is a bigger deal for Valencia. Anyway, with HCA Real Madrid should beat any of these teams. Real in 5 vs. Fener, 4 vs. Valencia.

Barcelona vs. Pana/CajaLa/Rytas - Barcelona in 3 or 4.

[karolis1221]

maccabi win easy.
i would give more credits for panathinaikos i think they can win over barca.
madrid real without coach will be destroyed by valencia.
Olympiakos lose to montepaschi if kaukenas recovers from his injury.

3 prediction going into right direction

[Greek]

In my books after those series Diamantidis is officially the best Greek basketball player ever, and the best player in last years in Europe in general. Its a shame that he is so modest and he never tried to play in the NBA...

[EuroFan]

In my books after those series Diamantidis is officially the best Greek basketball player ever, and the best player in last years in Europe in general. Its a shame that he is so modest and he never tried to play in the NBA...

It's a bless he never went to NBA.

[Veni Vidi Vici]

good game of Gallinari vs Maccabi 23pt 7 rb
boxscore of game

"Milan immediately immense
Maccabi beaten 89-82

A fantastic start to the Euroleague for Armani, who beat last year’s finalists Maccabi Tel Aviv, 89-82

Milan have had a fantastic start to the Euroleague, beating last year’s finalists Maccabi Tel Aviv, 89-82, to complete a perfect two days for the Italian sides in the competition, following wins by Siena over Kazan and Cantù over Nancy. Milan were back in European competition again 10 months after the dismal night in Biella, when Valencia extinguished any hopes the side had of making the Top 16 for Olimpia. This time, the opposition were one of the most spoken about and famous: the Israeli side that, against the Tracer and the Philips of the era, battled for the European title in Lausanne in 1987, and in Gand in 1988. Scariolo had to make do without flu-victim Mancinelli, but Blatt had Jordan Farmar back, the new signing from the NBA while their season is under lockout.

Fast paced — The game starts at a fast pace, even too fast, and after less than 3 minutes, both sides have already taken 13 shots although only one scores (Bourousis). The battle between the two Greek centres is worthy of note: weight and height in favour of Bourousis, a few centimetres less and a bit more weight (around 150 kilos) for Baby Shaq Schortsanitis: the Olimpia player has the better of the early stages, exchanging pick and rolls with Cook, scores all the Milan points in the 9-5 scoreline in the first 6 minutes. Maccabi play everything through Big Sofo, who alternates good plays and bad plays and who does set up his teammates for shots when he manages to elude the marking. Papaloukas in place of Farmar is a godsend for the Israeli side, who score 12 points without reply and finish the first quarter 19-14.

Testing each other out — New sides that still need to familiarise themselves with each other, but players with immense talent, so there are a lot of individual plays: those of Hairston, a combination of the spectacular and the efficient, have a massive impact and his three points take EA7 to 29-27. But Gallinari struggls and is blocked time and again by the Maccabi defence and scores his first points after 19 minutes. But the final spurts of the game are all his and, at the break, Milan lead 41-38 despite their first choice guards Cook and Nicholas not scoring any points and the giving away ten fouls while trying to block the more agile opposition.

MLAN UNLEASHED — Bourousis again picks up the pace of the first quarter (9p+7r), Hairston continues to look unstoppable and when EA7’s Nicholas gets into gear, the gap increases to +11 after 26 minutes. Eliyahu, who Managing Director of Olimpia, Pascucci, got Houston to sign when he was their European scout, is the only Maccabi player doing well, but it’s not enough as the opposition move the ball around more freely and with consummate ease. On 30 minutes the score is 65-52 with Hairston in full swing: he looks like a smaller version of Julius Erving, who, with his class, in the 70s and 80s made millions of youngsters fall in love with basketball. It’s fantastic to watch and tremendously effective.

THE CALSS OF GALLO — It almost looks like they will storm to victory, but, just when everything is looking good, something goes wrong. A couple of shots hit the rim, a couple of mistakes in attack and two 3-point shots from Blu followed by three points from Papaloukas means the score is 71-65 with 7 minutes left to play. Blu makes it -4, then the class of Gallo comes to the fore, and, from the corner, like a true champion, scores with a three point shot. Cook increases the gap and then it becomes a matter of who wastes most chances. With 1 minute and 51 seconds remaining, Papaloukas makes it 79-74 with a penalty shot, Cook adds two more and Hairston blocks, wins back possession and completes an assist to Rocca to make it 83-74. The game ends with the crowd in the Forum on their feet and clapping: Pesaro is a distant memory, Bologna (Sunday at 18.15) is just around the corner and even without Kobe Bryant there will be fun and games.

Milan: Hairston 25, Gallinari 22, Bourousis 13
Tel Aviv: Eliyahu 23, Blu 16, Papaloukas 13.
from gazzetta dello sport http://www.gazzetta.it

[Veni Vidi Vici]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLufRk_BJpo[/youtube]
full match

[TheWeakSide]

One of the best games i have watched so far this season.An up-tempo game,full of energy and two teams which were tactically tailored to opponent's game.I reccommend this game to everyone who love basketball.
Armani Milano,Sergio Scariolo's team,is a "full of talent" side but it's a not a "well-worked" team.Gallinari relies to much on 1vs1 situations and he's not as discipline as is needed to be in european basketball.
At the other side Rudy Fernadez has an extremely knoweldge of how basketball is played here and of course it's easy for him dominating at most games.

[C.Delfino]

Did anyone catch the CSKA-Unicaja game? Man, AK has been a total beast so far, dominated the game without barely shooting. If he stays for the seasons he will probably be among the top MVP candidates.

I assume Kristic is a lock to stay no matter what happens with the NBA lockout, so I'm liking this years CSKA team. With AK, they are looking like a top-5 team in Europe.

[Foye]

I've watched Bamberg-Panathinaikos and Milano-Partizan

Bamberg played really well against last years Euroleague champion and won their home game 79-76. Could've won it by a higher margin if it wasn't for some stupid errors at the end of the game which brought Panathinaikos back in it.

Partizan made a huge comeback in Milano. They overcame a 20 pts deficit in the 4th quarter by outscoring Milan 30-9.
Danilo Gallinari didn't play that well for Milano although he drew a ton of fouls.
Nikola Pekovic looked good scoring 15 pts 5/9 FG and 5/6 FT's, with 6 rebs and 8 fouls drawn.
Acie Law sucked as always. 2/13 FG's for 7 pts.

[Chalk1]

when was the last 40 point blowout in the EL? Real Madrid put a hurt on Bamberg today.

[aceking79]

46 on Efes today. Impressive!

[UcanUwill]

46 on Efes today. Impressive!

That team is ridiculous. Bourousis finally delivered for my fantasy challenge as well. Real are so deep, they were using him as a fouling post stopper prior, ala Jason Collins