| 23 November 2007 By Yarone Arbel
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To say Yarone Arbel likes basketball would be an understatement of epic proportions. He eats, sleeps and breathes it and gives his EuroCup impressions every week in Good News, Bad News. |
With the first set of games from the EuroCup elimination round two complete there's plenty to talk about, as the Russians proved they learned from the national team success this summer and the importance of winning your home games came into focus.
That's just some of the good news and there was bad news too from this week of EuroCup action.
The Good News
Russian defense
Russia won EuroBasket 2007 with great defensive work, and the first leg of this round in the EuroCup shows the Russian teams are learning from that example. Four teams from Russia compete in this stage – Spartak St. Petersburg, Lokomotiv Rostov, Ural Great and CSK Samara. All four were stingy on defense and though Spartak lost at home they gave up just 65 points, which allow them to still seek revenge in the second leg. Rostov went on a tough road trip to Macedonia against Stumica and allowed just 57 points on their way to a 10 point win. Ural Great went down to Greece to face Olympias Patras, and stopped the locals on 66 points, enough for a 14 point road win. Last but not least is Samara who went all the way up to Lulea from Northern Sweden and allowed 73 points in an 18 points win. If you question the 73 points of Lulea to fit the theory check out their field goal percentages – only 38.9% inside the arc and 28% from long range.
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Milutin Aleksic has been great for AEL with 15 points and as may rebounds against Dnipro.
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| Big Time Aleksic
One of the most impressive stat lines of the first leg came from Serbian Milutin Aleksic. This will be his third season with Cyprus' powerhouse AEL, which made it to the quarter-finals of the EuroCup last year. He’s a versatile 202cm player who can line up at almost any position on the court and he’s always fun to watch. In AEL's big 64-53 road win at Dnipro of Ukraine he had a monster 15 points and 15 rebounds double-double in addition to four assists. Both teams struggled from the field that night, and Aleksic was part of those sins, but still managed to account for almost 25% of his team's total.
The Bad News
Spartak's Struggles
The EuroCup trophy spent a season in the city of white nights – Saint Petersburg. In 2005 it was Dynamo who won the title without dropping a single game along the way. This year there's another rising power from the former Russian capital. Spartak St. Petersburg built an impressing roster during the summer, and showed they know the market well enough to use their budget wisely. You hear about powerhouses like Barcelona, Unicaja, Panathinaikos and Tau that sign Europeans who come back from the NBA. Spartak joined that very prestigious list when they signed the Croatian star Damir Markota during the last EuroBasket. They also added Serbian Milovan Rakovic, a physical and very aggressive young big guy who was selected in last year’s NBA draft, Brazilian Rafael Paulo Araujo, who left the NBA after three years for a contract in Russia and two players who excelled in Italy in the last seasons in shooter Joe Smith, and the Argentinian born point guard Antonio Porta who was the top passer in the first division in Italy two years ago. This should be enough for this club to contend for the EuroCup title, but it now looks likely Spartak won't make it past the second round. A tough draw set them opposite another good team – The Greek side Maroussi, and the last quarter of their opening leg made the whole difference. With 8:46 to go in the game Spartak took a 60-53 lead, but could manage only two points the rest of the way as Maroussi ended on a 10-2 run for the victory. Next week they will have to avenge themselves or else one of the favorites to win the cup, and an intriguing team to follow this season, will be out at a very early stage.
One sided fits all
16 games have been played in this round of the EuroCup, and the vast majority of them were one sided. Only three teams – Spartak St. Petersburg, Ironi Nahariya and the Romanian Sala Sporturilor lost by five points or less. Five more teams lost by 10 or more while the rest will have to recover from 15 plus point defeats. This is exactly what an elimination round is for. Expect the next round to feature closer affairs.
Mi casa es su casa?
The unwritten rule say: "First keep your home record spotless". In a long domestic league season that rule is less concrete but when it comes to a home and away series series, it's strong as oak. Too many teams failed to do so as the home-road record split even after the first round of games. Half of the games were won by the road team, but pay attention that only one of them, Maroussi at St. Petersburg, was close win. Most of the road wins were by a double-digit margin, and those teams should have an easier task on the second leg. |
