Yarone’s Weekend Joints - Part I

Part I will present all that before Part II, in which the games in Barcelona and Roma take center stage.

Just almost…

Prokom’s Pat Burke came very close this week to writing his name in the Euroleague history books. Burke finished the game in Kaunas with 20 rebounds and could have become just the fourth player in Euroleague history to notch a 20-20 game, but instead scored 18 and stayed off the list. The only three players who registered a 20-20 performance remain: Spencer Nelson, Antonis Fotsis and Mirsad Turkcan. The first two are only playing in the Eurocup this season. Behind them is a list of four more performances by players who reached 20 rebounds or more, but failed to connect on enough points. Turkcan is in charge of three of them, while the fourth is Dejan Milojevic’ 17-point, 20-rebound game. Burke scored his 18th point when there were still four minutes to play, and actually had a great chance to make the list with a shot under the rim in the closing seconds of an already decided game, but was blocked by … Loren Woods, which leads us right into the next joint.

Blocking tree

Philosophy still hasn’t found an answer to the question, “If a shot is rejected in the middle by Woods and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”, but Prokom felt Loren’s presence all the way. That block on Burke was only one of seven the Zalgiris center delivered on Thursday night, finishing with seven points, 14 rebounds to go with the seven blocks: Not too far from the third triple-double in Euroleague history and the first to be reached with blocks. The Euroleague record for blocks in a single game belongs to Ukrainian big man Grygorii Khizhniak, probably the best shot blocker in Euroleague’s history. Khizniak also played for Zalgiris when he put in his eight-block game back in the debut season of the Euroleague in 2000. That game, by the way, went into overtime and Khiz played over 40 minutes, so that record will carry an asterisk. Khizniak also had two additional games with 7 blocks, tying him with Woods and yet another former player of Zalgiris, Darjus Lavrinovic, who reached that figure in only 27 minutes. In total, Zalgiris holds the top five shot blocking performances in the list. Behind them are four players with six block: Fred Weis who pulled it off in 23 minutes; Maceo Baston, who notched the total in a Final Four semifinal game; another Maccabi player in Terence Morris; and Marcus Haislip in his days with Efes.

Pass last Logan

Still along the line of Zalgiris blocks, more or less, here’s the story of Prokom’s David Logan in Kaunas wherein he finished the game with no fewer  than 21 attempts from the field: not a figure you see every week in the Euroleague. The bad news was that he connected on only five of those shots on the way to a terrible 23.8% night. Logan actually scored his last field goal in the final minute of the third quarter, cutting the difference to 57-54 and reaching a not-so-fun-in-the-first-place 5-for-13 on field goals. The problem was that in the last quarter he missed all of his eight shots, and dropped to the terrible numbers above. During that run of missed shots, Logan was blocked three times and reached a total of four received blocks in the games. If it’s any comfort, he wasn’t the only one to suffer so this week.

Chris too

After the terrible performance last week against Maccabi it was time for Chris Warren of Avellino to wake up. He provided 16 points and 6 rebounds as his team once again gave Unicaja a hard time but, like Logan, Warren was blocked four times. For Chris, it happened in a span of 18 minutes and each block was made by a different opposing player. Not an easy experience.

Bluth and D. Spen are tied

Two more games to go in the season and this race will be decided only on the last game. David Bluthenthal and Dewarick Spencer are now tied 4-4 in the weekly race for “Who took more field goal shots for Le Mans?” Bluth won 12-10 this week, an expected score, since he played against his former club Maccabi.

Where We Stand, Group A

So now it’s final and official. The four teams to qualify to the Top 16 are: Olympiacos, Unicaja, Cibona and Maccabi. Le Mans will host Avellino next week to try and avoid a winless season before flying to Greece. Right after the break, get ready for a big show when Olympiacos comes to Tel Aviv to meet former coach Pini Gershon. All is open among the four as they still have to play one another. Maccabi will travel to Malaga in the last week, so they are in charge of their own destiny, but a 19-point loss in Greece and a 7-point home loss to Unicaja makes make the task difficult. The next round of games will decide if it’s a Olympiacos-Unicaja battle on top and a Maccabi-Cibona fight for 3rd place or just a free-for-all.

True survivors

Efes Pilsen had to win in Athens to avoid an uncomfortable situation, considering their last two games are against CSKA and at Real. Efes lost to Panionios in the first leg, 78-69, and replied with a close result but five points better for them, 78-74. Coach Ergin Ataman decided to bet on his veterans and it paid off big time: 31-year-old Bootsy Thornton had started in all of Efes’ Euroleague games this season, but for 32-year-old Greek forward Michalis Kakiouzis, it was the first time. Neither wasted time in making a statement: The Turks took a 11-4 lead after five minutes, while Kakiouzis had seven points and two assists in the run - nothing but perfection. After a Peker dunk, it was Bootsy’s time. He scored seven points in a row for Efes and saw Kakiouzis reappear with another assist as Efes took a 22-6 lead they never relinquished. Both veterans provided their season highs just in time. Bootsy had 18 points on 5-for-7 from the field, 6-for-6 from the line, three rebounds and four assists to reach an index rating of 25. Kakiouzis returned with 15 points, 5-for-8 from the field, 4-for-4 from the line and five rebounds on the way to an index rating of 22.

Where we stand, Group B

It’s very unlikely Barcelona won’t finish first after their performance in the last two weeks, so the big is on the 2nd spot and it will take place right after the break in Siena. Montepaschi will host Pao with both teams tied at 6-2. Pao won by five in the first leg, so anything but a five-point win by the Italians will give Pao second place. Things are wide open at the bottom, as Zalgiris can still escape from a terrible 0-7 start to gain a spot in the Top 16. Right after the break, they  host SLUC Nancy; a 15-point win, not an unreachable goal considering their shape in the last two games, would give them the first place in the tiebreaker with the French and Prokom. If no huge upsets happen, that win would be enough for Zalgiris to qualify. A Lithuanian win of less than 15 will push Prokom into the next stage. A French win would punch Nancy a shocking Top 16 ticket.

The future!

OK, there was one more thing to follow in that game if you’re a diehard youth basketball fan. In fact, if you’re a scoutk then this game is a must-see, as 1989-born Georgian center Giorgi Shermadini, who was recently signed by Pao on a long-term contract, took the court for the first time and played more than 10 minutes in which he felt the big difference between dominating European youth championships and the real world of basketball. On the other end waited the 214-cm, 1988-born big man from Niger, Amadou Aboubakar Zaki who spent a season-high 20 minutes on court. The kids combined for one point, and if you are curious how they did on court, well, there are other places on the web to hunt for that type of information.

Yarone’s Weekend Joints - Part I

Stretch your legs, inhale, exhale, surround yourself with your fave munchies  (Tobias, this is where the “pizza delivery” banner should appear!) and get ready for another edition of Euroleague Joints.

So here we stand - Group A

With three more weeks to play in the regular season, it’s time to take a glimpse at the standings. Group A is where things are pretty much set regarding the qualifiers. Avellino has nothing but a theoretical chance to make it, so the top four will be Olympiacos, Unicaja, Cibona and Maccabi. All spots are still open, considering those four still have several games among themselves, but the key will be the Maccabi - Olympiacos and Cibona - Unicaja games. With road wins, the quartet will split into two. Anything else will create a big mess.

Anti-Zalgiris

Although in recent years, things have changed a bit with the rise of Rytas, not many great Lithuanian players make it to the top without wearing the jersey of Zalgiris. It seems like this season those few will make an extra effort when they meet the greatest club of their nation, who missed their potential at some point on the road. After Saras showed no mercy last week, this time it was turn for Rimas Kaukenas and Ksystof Lavrinovic to display their finesse skills against the mothership.

Just as in the game in Kaunas in Week 2, when they tallied an index rating of 25 (Kaukenas) and 23 (Ksystof), this week they excelled with 24 (Ksystof) and 20 (Kaukenas). Lavrinovic, by the way, is on a terrible shooting streak lately: After starting the season 9-for-14 from long range, in the last three games he missed all ten attempts.

Ioannis’ deja vu

One of the main reasons Unicaja kept their home record perfect after a challenging game against Olympiacos was their tough and aggressive defense that matched the one the Greeks usually bring to court. In the second half Olympiacos was blocked no fewer than six times, and other than one great block on the 7 million dollar man, the other five were all on Yannakis’ big guys: Sofo, Vujcic and Bourousis. The last felt it stronger than anyone else, as he was blocked no fewer than three times, on the final occasion during a crucial possession right under Unicaja’s rim with Olympiacos down by 2.

Bourousis has been one of the best and most efficient centers this season in the Euroleague, and blocking a big guy as him isn’t an easy task, but that play marked Unicaja’s justified win more than anything else. By the way, the last time Bourousis was blocked three times in a single game was more than three years ago when Climamio Bologna smashed his former team, AEK Athens, 88-55, on November 9, 2005. In that three-year span, he was blocked a total of eight times, never more than once in a single game.

Charlie, stay away from home

A few players have been diagnosed here with the rare “Life on the road” syndrome, prime symptom of which is having better games on the road than in front of their own fans. Cyril Julian finally broke the spell with a good performance at home, clearing the stage for Efes’ Charles Smith. The US shooter can hardly find the net in Abdi Ipekci when he’s shooting his famous three pointers, but on the road he’s one of the most dangerous weapons. In Istanbul, he has thus far gone 4-for-24 and hasn’t hit more than one in a game. On the road, Smith has scored at least two threes per game and is a super 12-for-23 overall. Next week he’s in Greece: Get ready.

Let the kids play

The garbage minutes in Vitoria gave us a chance to follow two of the most promising youngsters in the Euroleague this season. Olimpija’s Mirza Sarajlija is already a familiar face for those following Olimpija the past three weeks. Seeing Sarajlija play for 20 minutes, especially when Ilievski is injured, was no surprise. For the first time he finished without making a field goal but still collected four points and three steals.

On the other side, we saw Argentinian prospect, 1990-born guard Matias Nocedal, step on court for the second time this season after earning 10 minutes in the blowout against Alba and scored his first Euroleague points on the way to an index rating of 8, higher than Igor, Pablo and Tiago…

So here we stand - Group B

Barca and MPS have qualified officially and Pao are in as well, unofficially, although they will need a miracle to finish first. Next week, Stonerook and the gang travel to Barcelona where first place will most probably be decided. Pao will pray for an Italian win and then try to beat them in Tuscany, but even that may not be enough for them to reach the vertex of the group. The small loss in France turned Prokom into a favorite to finish 4th, but since they still need to travel to Kaunas as well as Nancy, everything is still wide open. Zalgiris must win both games by large margins to have a chance, but it’s doable. With a win in Lithuania, Prokom will advance.

O70

Congratulations! After seven games, Zalgiris Kaunas has finally gotten over the 70-point barrier, and of all places they did it at Montepaschi, where no team has passed the 71 line since Pao in February. Jonas Maciulis ultimately showed up with what so many expected to see of him this season: 21 points, 5-for-9 FGs, 3-for-3 on three pointers, 4 assists, 4 steals and lots of energy. With Maciulis in good shape and Mantas Kalnietis contributing his best Euroleague performance ever, the Greens can finally show their face back home. Montepaschi’s win was never in doubt, but Zalgiris still deserve good words for their performance, even when Willie Deane scored yet another performance of negative index rating with -2.

Bluth is back

This one was no competition: In the weekly battle between David Bluthenthal and Dewarick Spencer, we saw a landslide when Bluth took 12 shots (including one from half court that went in) against only two for his teammate. For Spencer, it’s a career low since moving to Europe including domestic league games. Well, leave out two playoff games with Efes last season, where he hardly spent minutes on court and attempted less, if you insist on the small details, but in the other 141 games the US shooting guard never took so few shots. Nevertheless, he leads the race 4-3 with three more games to play.

Arroyo inherited Parker

Carlos Arroyo is the most expensive player in the history of Maccabi Tel Aviv, and this week he wrote his name in the history books of the prestigious club while ejecting none other than the legendary Anthony Parker. Sounds like a good thing, right? Well, think again.

Like several past Joints here, this one should be credited as well to Arale Weisberg of Ynet.co.il, one of the brightest basketball journalists out there. Mr. Weisberg found Arroyo’s index rating of -10 at Avellino to be the worst performance a Maccabi player has scored since the move to ULEB. Checking some other unforgettable terrible games of the past, such as this horrible show by Tom Chambers, resulted in no contenders from the FIBA days.

What does this have to do with Parker? Well, other than topping the all-time index rating average standings in the Euroleague, Parker also held the record for the worst performance in Maccabi uniforms until this Thursday. To see Parker with a -9 in that column isn’t something human eye can adjust to in a second, so clear some of your schedule for that. Arroyo? After the 2/13 on opening night at Cibona, he put in a terrible 2-point, 1-for-11 game this week. Next week, at Le Mans, where point guards usually celebrate, he’ll have a chance to fix the impression.

Yarone’s Weekend Joints

Yarone’s weekend Joints

Lots of three-ball action took place this week. Some went in with great accuracy. Others will have to pay for the rim damage. Lazos, Erceg and Childress are the most overpaid players of this week, the double OT in Istanbul had two sides, Spencer caught up, Nancy made history, Jennings made us proud, and one Emir Preldzic…

These are the stories of week 4 of Euroleague 2009.

In case you missed it… - CSKA tied the Euroleague record for most three pointers made with 18, and more amazingly they hit them at a 72% rate. Those who follow CSKA closely saw them only last week connect on 20 three pointers at 71.4% in a Russian cup game. Keep in mind that Holden and Smodis are injured and could probably add a couple more to the party. Do you still remember just a week ago the Euroleague champs scored only 58 points at Real and hit five three-balls at a poor 18.5% rate?

CSKA tied a record set by Lottomatica Roma, who went 18/34 back in December 2003, but it reminded me more of the most amazing three-ball display in Euroleague history: Efes’ unbelievable fourth quarter back in November 2006. In a home game against Olympiacos, the Jenkins-Nicholas-Erden-Haislip-Kuqo combination connected on 11 of 12 long-range shots in the final 10:04 of the game.

The Jennings report – Brandon Jennings, in one of the toughest arenas in Europe, explained why. Last week in a text written on this server, Jennings was asked, for the first time in his Euroleague career, to combine baskets inside and outside the arc, and right away he provided. The boxscore displayed 17 minutes on court, 13 points, 4-of-7 from the field, three assists and not a single turnover on the way to an index rating of 17. He played a key role in the third quarter when Tau pushed hard to take over, and made sure Roma stayed on top. Can’t ask for more from this kid.

Just imagine – Terrell McIntyre was 1-of-8 from long range in OAKA. Shaun Stonerook was 2-of-11 from the same distance, but Montepaschi still left Athens with only a five-point loss. If any of the above had shot at just a tiny bit better percentage…

Over? Under! – Four games into the Euroleague season and not only is Zalgiris Kaunas continuing to seek their first win, they’ve also failed to reach 70 points in a game: Their season high is 67 points at home, in the 26 point loss to Montepaschi. True, Kaunas lost Brown, misses Dean, and the go-to guy right now is the great Maciulis, who hasn’t fully adapted to the idea that he’s the main man this season. Nevertheless, it’s not that much we’re asking: In the next three games, Kaunas hosts Barcelona and Pao, followed by travel to Siena. None will be shocked to see them go 0-6, but if the Lithuanians can’t shoot to reach 70…

Standings – After four weeks, CSKA Moscow is the only undefeated team. Surprised? Group D, where CSKA play, is the only group in which just one team has reached three wins. Behind CSKA are four teams with a 2-2 record and in last is a team with no wins: Exactly the scenario predicted for this group from the first second after the draw. The only difference: Panionios was expected to be the winless team, while in fact it’s struggling AJ Milano.

It’s a close league after all – Four teams, one in each group, are still in search for a debut win, but that’s not a case of teams that are just too weak to win. All of them have already sensed a win in their hands at least once during the four weeks. Le Mans was close four weeks in a row, including an OT loss in Tel Aviv; AJ Milano has been in the neighborhood twice already and this week lost by a point; Olimpija lost once by a point as well and this week fell in double OT; finally, Zalgiris hasn’t been as close to success as the other three, but has lost their last two games by five points or fewer.

Index Morris – Last week, CSKA’s Terence Morris went 0-of-8 from long range in Madrid. This week he had three perfect hits from distance already after three minutes on the way to a 5-of-7 night.

Home sweetest home – 11 of the 12 games this week went in favor of the home team, including a double OT win for FenerUlker, a one-point win for Real, a two-point win for Alba and five-point wins for Nancy, Panathinaikos, Panionios and Avellino. The only team to drop the home game was Tau, considered one of the most difficult teams to beat on their home court, who lost by a small three-point margin.

Emir – If you’re a big prospect and want to make a break, then shower, shave, grab a bottle of water, some orange Tic Tacs, pack a small bag and go stand outside the house of coach Bogdan Tanjevic. Wait patiently, have some Tic Tacs and hope he’ll take you in. From there, you’re set. 18 points, more than 50% from the field, seven rebounds, five assists and just a single turnover: That’s the line Emir Preldzic produced this week. He’s playing inside Tanjevic’s system as much as a Bosnian can play inside a system, but also gets a lot of freedom from his coach to bring his skills and creativity to the floor. Follow this kid. He’s much more than just great numbers: He’s fineness and finesse.

Double OT, triple lead – The interesting thing about the game in Istanbul, only the third in Euroleague history to go 50 minutes, was that in all three crucial possessions FenerUlker were up. In regulation, it was a huge running three-pointer by Saso Ozbolt (Welcome back!) to tie the score. Then Damjan Rudez scored on a layup to force another overtime, and finally Vlado Illievski took the chance when down by two with a long distance attempt that went out.

Vlado + Saso > Europe – Olimpija’s Ilievski and Ozbolt played a double OT but still combined 79:50 minutes of play so they didn’t hold a much bigger margin on other backcourts. Nevertheless they took no less than 21 shots from long range (11 by Vlado). Those 21 attempts by only two players represented more three-point attempts than those taken by the entire teams of Panathinaikos, Panionios, Alba, Cibona, Maccabi, Barcelona, Prokom, Real, Avellino, Le Mans, Roma and Nancy this week.

Joventut > Europe – Vlado and Saso weren’t the only ones. Demond Mallet and Luka Bogdanovic of Joventut also combined for 21 attempts from long range, and they played much less obviously. Luka was on a big night hitting 7-of-12 from long distance without taking a single shot inside the arc or the charity stripe. Mallet was a tiny bit less glamour at 1-of-9 from the same distance.

Both were merely executing Joventut’s game plan, or so it seemed on the court. Rudy’s former team took 23 shots inside the arc, but no fewer than 37 outside: a huge difference that hints at a lack of guiding hand and another reason to hang a “We miss you Ricky!” sign in the lockerroom. Joventut had the last ball of the game down by two at Alba, and take a wild guess what their play was…Wrong! Pau Ribas tried to find an open man for the three, but Alba did a great job in the passing lanes, forcing the young guard to go to the rim. He added one more miss to his pocket and Alba celebrated their second win.

All Blacks – OK, the national team of New Zealand isn’t playing in the Euroleague yet, but while I was watching Nancy-Zalgiris on Wednesday night, I suddenly noticed something refreshing: With Cyril Julian out due to injury, Nancy this week was a team composed of only black players, probably the first time ever in European basketball history. Quickly, Mr. Ney was sent to check the NBA rosters and figure how many NBA teams have only black players on the roster, and his answer was one: The Philadelphia 76ers, thus making the occasion in Nancy this week very unique indeed. From the Greer duo to the promising young Zaki, it was a refreshing occurrence. The fact they have won isn’t as exciting as the happenings in Illinois not too long ago, but certainly is a happy episode.

Double OT, triple miss – While Olimpija had to come back from behind time after time in the finals seconds, the Turkish side can be happy to win a close game, but proved he can miss time after time in these situations. Devin Smith had a decent shot from the three-point corner to win the game in regulation but missed. At the end of the first OT, Fenerbache had 6.5 seconds to win the game but managed to lose the ball, while at the end of the last overtime Marque Green missed his first free throw in the final seconds, leaving Olimpija a chance to win.

Whole story in one Zoran – Olympiacos paid around <!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> €700,000 just to buy out Zoran Erceg from FMP Zeleznik. His contract probably isn’t cheap, either, and the buyout plus contract is worth around $1.5 million easily. This is more than Maccabi’s second-highest paid player. Erceg played less than seven minutes this week, and other than pick up one foul did nothing on the court. No rebounds, no shots taken, no assists, no turnovers. His team still won by 19, the second-greatest margin of the week. His story tells the difference between Olympiacos and a second-tier Euroleague team.

Frustrated Milanese - If you’ve ever had the chance to stop whatever it is you’re doing in your daily life and wonder what’s more frustrating, to lose a five-point lead in the last minute or a 23-point lead in the second half, well, your search for an answer is over! AJ Milano solved this riddle for you! Once again, one player shone above all: This time it was Michael Hall, who won the MVP of the week award, and once again Milano seemed on the sure path for a win. Answers shall be provided after the debut win.

Looking for Lazos – Not too long ago, in the summer of 2007, Lazaros Papadopoulos was a hot item in the market. At 210cm with post moves, decent rebounding and one of the smartest brains in the Euroleague chasing up a 14.8 ppg, 7.2 rpg and a season index rating of 20.3 with Dynamo Moscow. Then came a multi-season deal with powerhouse Real Madrid, who wanted to return to greatness. On that paper, it says Lazos will make more than <!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> €2 million per season, but he never really proved worthy of it.

His decline already began last season, when his season numbers dropped to 6.9 ppg with 3.2 rpg and season index of no more than 7.8. If someone was waiting for Lazos to come back to life this season, well…maybe later. Right now, he’s finished two games in a row with no points, something that hasn’t happened to him in a European competition since January 9th, 2003. His index ratings in the past three games were 2, -2, and 2. His minutes dropped from 20 to 12 to five. Lazos is no longer a factor. Can’t wait to have him back in shape.

Weekly battle – After Bluthenthal wrote a landslide last week, it was time for Dewarick Spencer to retort. This week, the US guard won the “let’s see who shots more” battle 15-4. Le Mans, no news, lost a close game in Italy. Overall score: Bluthenthal 2, Spencer 2.

Shooting Josh – If you think Lazos is the most overpaid player this week, well, Josh Childress is giving him good competition. The $7 million man finished the game against Maccabi with four points on 1-of-6 from the field and five turnovers. Maccabi gave him a lot of space to shoot from long range, and Josh didn’t punish. The tale from Piraeus is that after the game, while media walked around the lockerroom, looking for Childress, the US swingman went back to the court to work on his jumpshot, to make sure no team will bet on his shots again. Time will tell…

Three-ball Rawel – Cibona’s Rawel Marshall arrived to Malaga with a 7/17 ratio from long range. He finished the game 7 of 10 from that distance. Cibona scored only one additional three pointer. Unicaja combined for a team total of six three-pointers.

Marshall hit just a single bucket inside the arc. Each and every one of his long balls is worth a look. He showed great diversity making off dribble and catch and shoot attempts, eith with a hand in his face or wide open, right on the arc or a step behind…

Yarone’s late Friday’s joints

Globalization – The player with the highest VAL on Zalgiris of Lithuania was US center Loren Woods. The players with the best VAL for Italian Montepaschi were Rimantas Kaukenas and Ksistof Lavrinovic from … Lithuania. In fact, the latter two combined for a VAL of 45 while all Lithuanian players on the Lithuanian team combined for a VAL of … 40. Neither Kaukenas nor Lavrinovic, by the way, ever played for Zalgiris.

New tunes – How many African big men can you think of who topped the “Best FT%” category in any league? Joventut’s Pops Mensah-Bonsu hit 4 of 4 last week, while yesterday proving he can make it even better by making 11 of 12 from the charity stripe in the loss at Roma. Can you believe this guy averaged 66.7% in the ULEB Cup and 54.6% in LEGA the past season, and that these numbers were considered decent for him?

Career low – In his long, long Euroleague career Nikola Vujcic had finished just one single game with a negative index rating: That was in last year’s semifinals, when Maccabi upset Montepaschi and Nikola had a -2 VAL. This was before his last Euroleague game with Maccabi. After the first game with Olympiacos, Vujcic set a new personal record with a VAL of -3.

Historical moment – If that’s not enough, the game against Unicaja will go down in history books as the first game ever that Nikola Vujcic finished with zero points in a Euroleague game. Vujcic had posted several games with two points, but always somehow found the way to get that ball through the rim. Last night, he missed one shot from close range, another behind the arc, and two shot attempts from the charity stripe. Nikola will surely contribute to Olympiacos down the road when the money is on the line and as long as his team won, he’s happy, but this game won’t be colored with happy shades in the boxscore archives of the Vujcic family.

Zero – Believe it or not but Le Mans, a team with two of the best shooters in Europe - David Bluthenthal and Dewarick Spencer – finished their first home game of the season with zero three pointers made of 12 attempts taken. The duo was responsible for eight of these attempts.

Just across the street – Not too far from there stood Cibona Zagreb. The days Croatian teams were considered great shooting teams are sadly long gone now, but they were just a tiny bit better than Le Mans. A long-range shooting night of 2-for-14 on Cibona’s side shone only next to Le Mans’ performance.

Happy thoughts for Pao – Obviously the biggest result of this week was the big knock out Pao got in Barcelona. The final difference was 24 after Barca were all over the game from tipoff. If you’re a Panathinaikos fan that might even be good news. On 21 March 2007, the last day of the Top 16, Pao traveled to Barcelona only to return to Athens with a very disturbing 21 point defeat. At the end of that season, Pao won their first Euroleague title since 2002.

No guards – Pao scored only 14 field goals inside the arc in the big defeat. Coach Zeljko used 10 players in his rotation, but only four were able to connect from two-point range. Three of them were big guys Fotsis, Batiste and Pekovic. The only saint in the backcourt was … Sarunas Jasikevicius, who knows the nets in Palau Blaugrana pretty well, but still won’t remember this “homecoming game” fondly.

February 14, 2008 – On that day Davor Kus missed his last Euroleague free throw shot until last night in France… Then, at Barcelona, he was only 1-for-3. Then followed a streak of 10 consecutive shots to finish the season, another 6-for-6 last week against Maccabi, and last night one of the best free throw shooters in the Euroleague was stopped. Literally. He finished the game 0-for-7 from the field and a VAL of -8, but when he went to the line in the closing seconds to secure the triumph with Cibona up by three, Kus connected just one. Enough for the win. Goodbye to the streak.

Spencer ties – The weekly followup on the battle between Dewarick Spencer and David Bluthenthal continues, and this week we saw the first tie at 1-1 in their competition “who took more shots?” Spencer contributed 14 shots and Bluth lagged behind with only 11. In between them crept JP Batista with 13. Altogether, the trio provided a little less than 2/3 of Le Mans’ shots.

Few of a kind, part I – Now check out this unique stat line made by Terence Morris. He registered a VAL of 23 but that was the only category in which he totaled double-digits: 9 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks, 2 assists and only four field goal attempts. Very, very few players in Europe can reach such a high index rating by doing a little bit of everything.

Stay away! - Some of those fantasy fanatics out there believe that it’s good to take the best players of the weak teams figuring that “well, at least one guy needs to have a decent game.” Panionios, in their home defeat to CSKA, proved this theory wrong. Panionios set a new season low with a team index of 28, while the top individual high on the team was no more than … 7. Several players scored a better individual VAL this week than the entire Greek team.

Few of a kind – part II – So there are very few players like Morris in Europe, and that’s why he’s in CSKA making the big bucks; but his successor in Maccabi, D’or Fischer, showed this week he can produce the same numbers. Fischer crossed the double-digit mark in scoring 11, but added 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and four drawn fouls to reach a VAL of 21.

Foul him! – Daniel Ewing finished this week as the top scorer with 32 points on a great shooting night when Prokom smashed SLUC Nancy 91-62. He hit 7 of 9 from close range, 6 of 8 in the distance and well, no shots from the foul line. Why? Because in the entire game, Ewing was fouled just once by the French defense. Ewing was hot, all right, but when you foul a player in a zone just once in a game it says a lot about the lack of aggressiveness in Nancy’s defense.

Nevertheless more than perfect – Real’s Sergio Llull, the 21-year-old guard, is one of the funnest players to follow in the Euroleague. He’s quick and athletic but most of all plays with no fear. With Real having Raul Lopez and Pepe Sanchez on the roster, Llull probably didn’t expect to see a lot of playing this year before the season tipped off, but now he’s leaving the duo veterans behind. At Partizan, Llull had a perfect game: 19 points, 7-for-7 on two-pointers, 1-for-2 from three, 2-for-2 from the line, one rebound, one assist, one steal, zero turnovers with three personal fouls and two drawn. OK, so it’s not 100% perfect, but if you followed the game you know Llull’s only missed shot and two of his fouls came in the last seconds in attempt to save his team from a loss. On paper, he’s close to perfection. For us watching, he was more than perfect.

Close to perfection on the dark side – So Llull was huge, but take a look at Pepe Sanchez’s stat line from the loss in Beograd: 22 minutes on court, 0 points, 0-of-0 on two-pointers, 0-of-0 on threes, 0-of-0 FT, zero defensive rebounds, zero offensive rebounds, one assist, one steal, two turnovers, 0 bl-f, 0 bl-a, 0 fouls-c, 0 fouls-d and the poetic justice of 0 VAL.

Italian mafia – Efes Pilsen collected a key road win in Milano, and the ones who made the difference were Charles Smith, Milos Vujanic, Michalis Kakiouzis and Bootsy Thornton. What they have in common? All played in LEGA at some point in their career.

Yarone’s Friday’s joints

Sofoklis Schortsianitis (Olympiacos) – No shot attempts at all and only one foul in 7:42 minutes. Only once before has Schortsianitis finished a Euroleague game without a single shot attempt and that was when he played only two minutes.

Milos Teodosic (Olympiacos) – How often did you get to see this Serbian scorer finish with zero three-point attempts in 14:40? It happened once last season. If this were to continue this season, it would mean Yannakis is turning the kid from a scoring machine into a true team player. Keep an eye out.

Loren Woods (Zalgiris) set a Euroleague career high with 17 points and nine defensive rebounds against Pao, who have one of the best front lines in Europe.

Tamar Slay (Avelino) had his Euroleague debut as well against a Greek team, but we won’t mention this game on his resume, with his 1-of-10 from the field and -11 VAL.

Marcus Brown (Maccabi) – On Monday, Brown took two flights to arrive in Tel Aviv in the afternoon from Kaunas. The following day, he took two more flights to get from Tel Aviv to Zagreb with his new team. In total, Brown has probably had more flights than practices with his new team. Nevertheless, he played 27:44.

Willie Deans (Zalgiris) - In his Euroleague debut, Deans finished 1-of-10 from the field and -9 VAL against Pao.

Tau Ceramica Vitoria (ACB) used the shortest rotation this week with only eight players. Efes used nine, with one player on the floor for just 22 seconds. All other teams used between nine and 12 players

Rawle Marshall (Cibona) – Simply fun to watch. 20 points, 5-of-9 from the field, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, zero turnovers, 7 fouls drawn, and 29 VAL in a Euroleague debut. All cold numbers. Bottom line: Simply fun to watch.

Dimitris Diamantidis (Panathinaikos) – The best defender award winner for the past four years and one of the top three ball stealers on The Continent played 25:42 against Zalgiris with zero steals.

Dewarick Spencer & David Bluthenthal (Le Mans) – Now this could be a weekly check: Which of these two took more shots for his team? This time, Bluth wins 14-13 and also scores better accuracy.

Theodoros Papaloukas (Olympiacos) - 2,380 days have passed between 18/04/02 and today. Back then, Theo played his last Euroleague game for the Reds; yesterday, he made his rdappearance. Back then, he finished the game with 26:53 in playing time, 8 points, 3 rebounds and a VAL of 16. Today, he played only 90 seconds less, still scored 8 points, still grabbed 3 rebounds, and notched a VAL of 15 …consistency over a six-year span.

Avelino (LEGA) – In its Euroleague debut, the small Italian team registered a VAL of 36. Often this is less than the best weekly VAL from a single player.

Armani Jeans Milano (LEGA) – The game at Moscow was far from Milano’s Euroleague debut but under the new hat and management, expectations were different. Just like Avelino, another Italian team finished a game against a Final Four contender with a poor VAL rating of 36.

Tau (ACB) and Fenerbahce (TBL) combined for 52 attempts from long range on a night on which neither surpassed 30%.

Drew Nicholas (Panathinaikos) – After three seasons in a row over 40% from long range, the US shooter started his career in green with an 0-for-3 performance from long range.

Juan Carlos Navarro (Barcelona) – La Bomba bombed on the NBA runnerups 34 points less than a week ago. Last night, against SLUC Nancy empire, Navarro celebrated his return to the Euroleague with only four points and 1-of-8 from the field.

Derrick Sharp (Maccabi) – The veteran didn’t play a single second the entire game in Zagreb. The last time a Maccabi coach chose not to use Derrick was on 6 January 2000. After a 195-game streak and 3,213 days, a new count begins. Back then, in the first week of the millennium, Maccabi was just 1-of-6 from long range. Last night they showed a poor 4-or-16. Whether that’s a coincidence or not, you be the judge.

Oguz Savas (Fenerbahce) – The Turkish center is a decent rebounder, sometimes even more, but in Vitoria spent more than 23 minutes on the court and finished without a single rebound. This happened to Savas only once all of last season and back then, he played only five minutes.

Milos Vujanic (Efes) is officially back. The Serbian point guard beat his former team by a single point and was his team’s top scorer with 17 and just a single missed shot. The last time Vujanic scored more than 17 in a Euroleague game was on 9 March 2005 (that’s 1,324 days if you’re curious), when his Fortitudo Bologna won at Zalgiris by a single point as well and Vujanic had 18.

Real Madrid (ACB) – No fewer than eight players wrote a double-digit VAL in the 21-point cruise to victory against Olimpija.

Ibrahim Jabber, Ray Allan, Rodrigo De La Fuente, Brandon Jennings and Sanice Becirovic (Roma) – Coach Repesa’s backcourt combined for 4-of-18 inside the arc against Alba.

Nana Mensah-Bonsu (Joventut) had a very busy night under both baskets. Around Joventut’s rim he blocked three shots but on the other end was blocked three times as well. Not many players get to experience such activity on both ends on the floor.

Partizan (YUBA) and Maccabi (BSL) – Both lost by a single basket difference, the smallest margins of the first week, but in both cases it was after a three pointer at the buzzer that only made it look closer than it really was.

Alba (BBL) – No less than 1,723 days, since 4 February 2004, when Alba won their last Euroleague game. It was a 16 point triumph over Efes. John Best, Jovo Stanojevic, Marko Pesic and DeJuan Collins were the top scorers for Alba then. Not a single player on Alba has survived on the team since that season.

Brandon Jennings (Lottomatica) – The most standout number in the game that took Jennings’ Euroleague virginity is his 22 minutes with just a single turnover. Brandon also took nine shots from the field, more than any other Roma player yesterday.

Montepaschi (LEGA) were shooting better outside the arc (48% with 12 made) than inside it (40.5% with 15 made) in the nine-point win over Prokokm.

Boniface Ndong, Marcus Haislip and Robert Archibald (Unicaja) – The team’s three big men were also its three top scorers with 14, 13 and 11 points, respectively, over Le Man’s bigs.

Alain Koffi (Le Mans) – The athletic big man has finished each of his five seasons in the ULEB Cup and Euroleague with seven to nine assists total. On Wednesday night at Unicaja, the local stat guys bestowed him with no less than three, obviously a career high, and a great start to set a new season record as well.

(In case you are too shy to leave a comment here, you can always contact Yarone by sending him an email at arbel@ballineurope.com)