A little less than six months ago, Madrid and Anadolu Efes played for the title of the last Euroleague in Belgrade. Turkish team won.after the whites traveled 9 up in the third quarter, for a very tight 57-58 with Micic (23 points) Final Four MVP and Pleiss (19) as a guest star. This afternoon at the WiZink Center (19:45, Dazn) faces are seen againbut under different circumstances: neither of them walk now in playoff spots. The Whites (3-3 on balance) are ninth in a six-team tie and the Turks (2-4), fifteenth. The situation, despite the striking, is not new in Efes, which started 1-5 a year ago and 1-3 two years ago and ended up lifting the titles.
Ergin Ataman seems to control the situation while he also acts as the Turkish coach in the middle of Ventana, always from less to more, waiting to fine-tune the block and recover from injuries. Beaubois remains a doubt and the great Larkin is missing. The objective, capital, to chain three trophiessomething that only the Soviet ASK Riga (1958-60) and the Split Jugoplastika (1989-91) have achieved.
in Madrid, without him lasso mattressthe defeats do not fall with the same naturalness as in their rival, despite the fact that the ACB is more demanding than the Turkish League. The last setback, in Zaragoza, hurt, although Chus Mateo transmits calm: “The players are committed and train very well. There are some who arrive in Madrid and Until December they don’t fully know where they are, when the moment is good in Madrid it is very good and when it is bad, very bad. You have to know how to suffer it, pass screens and fill your backpack”. Regarding the poor defensive level, a message: “Each one must assume their individual responsibility in one against one. Not everyone is going to take melee like Deck or Hezonja, but they can be smart, sense the game and anticipate.”
Williams-Goss will not reappear yetalthough he has been training with the group for some time, and Musa will face his former team, in which he hardly counted for the Euroleague in the final months of two campaigns ago. “Micic called me when I signed for Madrid to congratulate me and he told me: ‘Finally we will play against each other”. Today is the day.
Micic, Larkin, Clyburn, M’Baye and Zizic, a quintet to leave their mark
Basketball has evolved a lot, it is no longer a matter of five players and two or three reserves as before, but of very large squads. Nevertheless, Having a great starting five still has its weight and Anadolu Efes boasts of it, although it has not yet been staged due to the injury of the electric base-shooting guard Shane Larkin (14.7 points and 5.3 assists last year), who is expected back at the end of this month after undergoing surgery on a finger due to an injury at the Eurobasket.
Without Larkin and with the physical problems of Rodrigue Beaubois, gamemaster Vasilije Micic (20 goals, 7 passes and a PIR of 22.5) and forward Will Clyburn (18.3, 5.8 rebounds and 20.3 credits), signed from CSKA, They are squeezing themselves on the pitch (36 minutes on average each) without the results accompanying. the magnificent three of the perimeter are indisputable, perhaps three of the top five outside players in the EuroLeaguealthough Clyburn can also do four. In his shadow Elijah Bryant and newcomer Isaiah Taylor.
Inside, the rotation is more airy. The Frenchman Amath M’Baye has eaten ground in the four to Polonara and averages 26 minutes (8.3 points and 4.7 rebounds) and in the five Ante Zizic (7+4) is slightly ahead (16 minutes) of Tibor Pleiss and Bryant Dunston. So we get a main quintet formed by Micic, Larkin, Clyburn, M’Baye and Zizic on a mission: tripitire title. One who will try to put on at the height of the best of the Euroleague in this century. We now remember the virtus 2001 (Jaric, Rigaudeau, Ginobili, David Andersen and Griffith), of the barca 2003 (Jasikevicius, Navarro, Bodiroga, Fucka and Dueñas), of the Maccabi 2004 and 05 (Jasikevicius, Burstein, Anthony Parker, Vujcic and Bastón), of the Fenerbahce 2017 (Sloukas, Bogdanovic, Kalinic, Vesely and Udoh), of the Madrid 2018 (Campazzo, Causeur, Doncic, Thompkins and Ayón), of the Obradovic’s Panathinaikosof Olympiacos of Spanoulis and Printezis…