Ball in Europe, the European Basketball Blog

What’s at stake on the final Wednesday night of the Euroleague 2009-10 regular season? Some bragging rights and potentially a couple of playoff spots. The win-and-in scenario tonight belongs to Lietuvos Rytas, a big six-point favorite at home against Unicaja.

AJ Milano, who’s hosting Real Madrid and is nevertheless a five-point underdog, also advances to Final 16 play with a win. Group rival Asseco Prokom, another homecourt five-point ‘dog – here’s to thinking the bookmakers don’t think much of Milano and Prokom under pressure this season, eh? – gets in with the upset victory and Milano loss.

With Real Madrid playing for top seed, however, and Khimki locked in to its no. 3 spot, figure Milano not to make up the five-point gap while Prokom at least keeps it close while likewise covering the pointspread. (Whether the latter manages to squeak into the Final 16 is another matter altogether…)

Pointspreads and over/under lines for tonight’s Euroleague games, as provided by Euroleague/Ball in Europe sponsor Sporting Bet, run below the break.

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Ataman on the hot seat?

With just one more week to go in first-round play, Francesco Cappelletti touches on some issues regarding those teams positioning themselves for the Euroleague Top 16. Also examined frankly: Ergin Ataman’s tenuous position in Turkey, Zoran Planinic and Nikos Zisis embracing their positions on potential Final Four clubs; and bucking for position on Real Madrid.

Extreme situations
Only a week remains to this Euroleague first stage, but the situations in many groups are still complicated. In Group A, Regal FC Barcelona lies in waits for Montepaschi with a +19 taken in Siena, testifying to the shape of Xavi Pascual’s players. This should be an interesting game, maybe balanced for nearly 40 minutes, but hardly vincible for the Italians. About the same men that last year started the game with a 25-3 first-quarter run for David Andersen and teammates … the final two positions have no owner.

Next week, a devastated Fenerbahce Ulker (unified against Bogdan Tanjevic: that’s the problem) hosts Zalgiris Kaunas, apparently better under new coach Ramunas Butautas; Asvel meanwhile goes to Zagreb to play a high-pressure game in which defenses are going to take control. Fenerbahce and Asvel (3-6) have one more win than Zalgiris and Cibona, but the feeling is they are not favourites to reach the Top 16.

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And Euroleague action is back for week nine action. Tonight’s slate of games is fit to make the playoff picture clearer. Lietuvos Rytas is in with a win, whereas a Khimki win or an Asseco Prokom loss gets the Moscow region team into the final 16.

According to the bookmakers, the marquee game to watch tonight amidst a lot of mismatches is clearly the game at Belgrade. The inconsistent Lietuvos Rytas can thank its current 1-3 run for its status as a five-point underdog at Partizan, and a double-digit loss would hardly be surprising for the Lithuanians at Pionir, where the black-and-white haven’t lost this season since opening day.

Also a must for viewing and tempting for punting is the Khimki-AJ Milano matchup. To say that Milano’s porous defense – they’ve managed to hold a Euroleague opponent to under 68 points just once this season – has been disappointing would be an understatement but makes for great high-scoring viewing if you’re not a fan. The Italians will be looking to salvage their hopes for advancement while avenging their week three loss to Khimki: Surely this team is too talented not to cover that pointspread of nine and that 146.5 will be toast. Go over.

Pointspreads and over/under lines for tonight’s Euroleague games, as provided by Euroleague/Ball in Europe sponsor Sporting Bet, run below the break.

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Siskauskas: The natural-born mismatch

Hello everybody and greetings from Javier Gancedo at Euroleague headquarters. We are facing a fantastic Euroleague week, with a lot of teams fighting for survival and some others positioning themselves to win their regular-season groups. We have Khimki against Panathinaikos in Group D, but also AJ Milano against EWE Baskets Oldenburg in a make-or-break battle. We could say the same about Maroussi vs. Union Olimpija or a very interesting Partizan vs. Efes Pilsen game. I expect this to be the most dramatic Euroleague week so far this season. Please keep an eye out.

Of course, Fantasy Challenge gets more complicated, too. There a few bargains left in the game and we all have to start including those players that we consider underrated in terms of talent versus credits.

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It’s do-or-die time in Euroleague this week. In tonight’s games, subplots include must-win games to avoid mathematical elimination from the postseason for Asvel Basket and Entente Orleanaise; possible second round-clinching wins from Panathinaikos, Montepaschi Siena and probably Unicaja; and the AJ Milano-EWE Baskets Oldenburg game in which the loser sees its advancement opportunities dwindle.

The lines and odds for tonight’s games, as provided by Ball in Europe sponsor Bet 365 follow below the break.
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Yesterday, Ball in Europe had a look at about a dozen newbies in the NBA from Europe; today, we’re flipping continents for a brief look at players from the US trying to make it in European basketball. With about one-third of the Euroleague season in the books, how are the first- and second-year Americans faring in Europe’s top league? Read on!

(Incidentally, we’ll consider US entries into other major domestic leagues at some future point in the 2009-10 season.)

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Key player

Wrapping up and putting a bow on week six of Euroleague basketball is BallinEurope’s man in Italy, Francesco Cappelletti, who today writes of Kleiza & Papaloukas, the Partizan player-making machine, and the league’s three biggest flops thus far in 2009-10.

Dear old Theo
Linas Kleiza has made us witnesses to what a former NBA sixth man is able to do: namely, score 19 points in 10 minutes, with all of his production coming in the last period, when Olympiacos seemed very close to its third consecutive loss outside of Athens. Kleiza scored from outside, going to the rim, penetrating, and in the final 24 seconds was simply unstoppable.

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Taking a brief look at the professional prognostication for tonight’s Euroleague games and, whoa, do the bookmakers really have Asvel Baskets and Zalgiris Kaunas as the game to watch tonight? Crazy, though a bit understandable when one considers the pointspreads given in three prospective David-and-Goliath matchups (AJ Milano at Panathinaikos, Cibona at Montepaschi Siena, Fenerbahce at Barcelona).

The pointspreads and over/under lines for tonight’s Euroleague games, as provided by Euroleague/Ball in Europe sponsor Sporting Bet are as follows.

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Hello everyone, this is Javier Gancedo, as always from Euroleague Basketball. Well, well, well … the regular season has reached its halfway mark and there are only a few underpriced players in the SportingBet Fantasy Challenge. In other words, the real competition starts now. People won’t play to accumulate credits, but will have to analyze games, opponents, previous matchups … It’s a brand new game already, and this is where I hope to keep improving.

My team (one of the 10 I manage … yes, I have to make sure nobody can have 11), Meet the Boss, scored 134.3 points and made it to the Top 10 at the BallinEurope Invitational Challenge. I am 60 points away from the top spot and competition is quite good so far. pavleiz leads the standings and his team has more points that any of my 10, so I am aware he’s difficult to beat.

Anyway, like I said, there are a few underpriced players left – Matt Walsh is one of them, but I promise not to use him this time after what happened last week – and I am going for them. I have a lot of credits, as many as 686.5, but I hope to hit 700 before I start thinking on changing my overall strategy. Still, there are some bargains impossible to overlook. So let’s start looking at my team, which looks pretty weird due to having so many moneymakers.

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The Boss says: Keep Matt Walsh this week

Life is good here in Barcelona: Euroleague basketball is back, Christmas is just around the corner, and my team Cajasol won five of its last six games. We needed, like, 25 games to get that fifth win last season. I’m heading down to Fuenlabrada for our road game on Saturday. People may wonder why, being in the Euroleague and talking to a lot of great players and coaches, I chose to be a Cajasol fan. Well, first of all, I am from Sevilla – and proud of it! And second, you are what you are: Once a Cajasol fan, always a Cajasol fan.

Anyway, enough is enough – Let’s start with the Fantasy Challenge. I had to give may team much thought this week, even though I haven’t traded yet: I always do that while writing this column. It’s all about game philosophy of accumulating more money or trying to find underrated superstars. I didn’t expect to be playing for money for so long, but I decided to do so one more time; therefore I will trade players that I think are already overrated and go for moneymakers.

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