Paris Basketball played against Nanterre who is one of their two local rivals as well as one of the best team in France. With Toupane out, Paris were super thin with just eight pro players available (one of which doesn't feature in the normal rotation and another one that was signed this week to compensate O'Quinn's departure).
Begarin started off with an airball on a pull up baseline jumper. On his next touch offensively he got fouled on a post up. On the resulting sideout, he drove past his man with ease but missed a difficult layup over the rotating big man. Because he drew so much attention, Kamagate was able to get to the front of the rim uncontested to grab the offensive board and was fouled before he could get back up with the ball. On that sideout, Begarin made a nice pull up from three despite a pretty good contest. On the other end he had a nice possession fronting Horton (the Nanterre big) and with the shotclock winding down he closed out to the ballhandler to force an airball (and a shotclock violation as a result). He had a turnover trying to cross behind his back and loosing his footing (it looked like he got tripped by the defender but the refs didn't call it).
There was a funny moment when Begarin gambled for a steal and missed it but his opponent inadvertently backed up into Begarin and lost his dribble resulting in a steal for Paris anyway. Off a defensive rebound, Begarin ran hard to the corner, the other team had a momentary breakdown defensively trying to get matched up and that's all he needed to sink the corner three. ON defense, he was guarding a shooter above the break when the ball kinda fell into his lap. Three dribbles later that ended up with an easy uncontested layup.
In his second stint, his first shot came after he set an off ball screen then hung around the dunker spot until he received the dump off and did what you are supposed to do in that spot. He then missed a deep catch and shoot three from above the break. On the defensive end he crashed the defensive board from all the way out behind the three point line and took off. He got by his man with a good cross and Nanterre had no choice but to give the foul to stop the transition opportunity. His next touch on offense came off the catch in the corner where he blew right by the closeout and he tried to hit Kamagate with a bounce pass when the help came over to prevent the layup. There was just no room to fit the ball into and he turned it over. He again grabbed a defensive rebound and took off. This time he used an hesitation dribble to keep his defender off balance and finished with a wrong hand layup through his chest. Then came back down the floor, poked the entry pass away from the big man trying to post him up. He got the steal and Nanterre gave the foul and two free throws to avoid the layup. Begarin made one of two from the line.
Begarin started the second half with a drive to the basket and a forced layup over two guys that had no chance (he did get bumped on the drive and probably expected to get a foul call to be fair). You could tell he was feeling it during the game because it's the first time this year that I saw him wave off the Kamagate screen to play an iso. With a quick cross and after putting his shoulder into his defender he got to the rim but his layup rimmed out. After the miss was tapped out to Allman, he relocated to empty spot behind the arc and knocked down a catch and shoot three off the kickout from Boatright. He pushed the ball up the court off a Nanterre make and caught the defense napping a little. He spinned off his man but settled for a fadeaway that was contested by the rotating big man. That opened up the offensive rebound opportunity for his teammate who immediately got fouled.
Begarin came back in the game with nine minutes left in the fourth and immediately had a couple of nice contests on the defensive end. With Paris down 5, he waved off Kamagate again to go iso this time with the Nanterre big man. He just hopped into a pull up three that he confidently swished through. On the next possession he drew a non-shooting foul when he was bumped getting by his man. He grabbed a defensive rebound and took off. With a behind the back cross and then another one in front of his body, he kept his defender on his heels and went all the way to the rim for the easy layup (and the lead). Down one with two minute left, he took a pull up from three out of pick and roll when the defender dropped to protect the paint but left it a little short. Up one, with 25.4 seconds left and a full shotclock, Nanterre gave the ball to their best player Nick Johnson to burn some clock. Begarin picked him up, put a ton of pressure forcing him to pick up the ball then stripping him and getting the foul call when Johnson tried to pry the ball back from Begarin's hands.
With ten second left after the foul, Allman chose to go hero ball but his drive was erased by a chasedown block from Horton. Sleva missed a putback and Kamagate too but he got fouled so he went to the line. He missed the first one but knocked down the second one to tie the game. Nanterre couldn't get a clean look with just 4 seconds left on the clock so the game went to overtime.
In overtime, Begarin missed his first opportunity. He created a ton of space with a jab step but left the three a little long. He ran a pick and roll with Sleva and had a nice pass over the two defenders to lead Sleva to the basket. He then grabbed an offensive board in between three Nanterre players and got two free throws for his effort. He made both to tie the game (and break his career high). Then he got a steal in the passing lane and raced down the floor but missed the dunk (thankfully Sleva cleaned up his mess so Paris still got two points out of it). He knocked down a catch and shoot three to break another tie with two minutes remaining. On the next possession he grabbed an offensive board, backed out then pulled from three. Nothing but net. +4 Paris with 1:20 left. Nanterre immediately cut it to one with a three of their own. Allman finally realized that Begarin was hot so he gave him the ball on the next trip and he unfortunately missed a baseline turnaround (he created plenty of space for his shot though). On the defensive possession he sinked into the paint to tag the roll man but still managed to closeout hard to the shooter to force a miss from three. Boatright blew by his guy to give Paris a three point lead. On the last shot, Nanterre could get nothing better than a three over Kamagate's outstretched arm and predictably missed.
The boxscore:
https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=24037Game highlights:
TL;DR: By far his best and most confident game of the season offensively. There was zero doubt he was the best player on the floor during that game and especially during that stretch where he closed the game out in overtime. It was the tightest his handles have looked all year. His jumper looked a lot smoother than usual (even his misses looked good). He was constantly in attack mode, pushing the ball off every rebound and even off makes and he drew a bunch of fouls (7 in total so he was a bit unlucky to get only 4 free throws) and a lot of help on the paint so even if he wasn't up to his standard around the rim he opened up multiples offensive rebound opportunities for his team.
Not his best game defensively but he still ended up with four steals, the biggest stop of the game and to be fair he was matched up a lot with Horton who is one of the best big man in the league and didn't shy away from the battle in the paint.
