AEK controlled every aspect of their Basketball Champions League Final Four clash with Unicaja Malaga in a statement win. The three-peat chasing Unicaja couldn’t handle the Athens club in any aspect of the game. Emmet Ryan on a most impressive display.
This was a true team effort. Everyone in a yellow jersey had one goal and that was to make life hell for Unicaja Malaga. AEK were bullies that played unselfish basketball to utterly dominate Unicaja.
Having come to Badalona seeking a Basketball Champions League three-peat, Unicaja instead face the ignominy of a third place game with Tenerife. For AEK, this huge night was bigger than even their most die-hard supporters expected.
An opening for the purists
The best chance AEK had coming into this game was to make it uncomfortable for Unicaja Malaga. That they would make it uncomfortable for the neutral viewer was irrelevant. The Athens side was brutally effective in its first quarter strategy.
Unicaja were limited to just 4 of 17 from the field as AEK went all-out to disrupt everything. They were five menaces in yellow determined to prevent anything approaching a basketball game breaking out.
This was not pleasant basketball but, my word, it was brilliantly effective. AEK’s 5 point lead at the end of the first also worked to drain Unicaja. A quarter with just 23 points total scored isn’t exactly a good product but basketball on this continent is more than that. It’s a sport where everything is on the table when it comes to finding a way to win.
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Sharing the load
An actual basketball game broke out in the second quarter but it was still very much played on AEK’s terms. That they were able to build a 10 point lead by the middle of the second quarter without anyone over 5 points proved telling.
The willingness to change the point of attack and be unselfish ensured a well-maintained grip on the tone of play. David Kravish was the only player with any joy offensively for Unicaja Malaga as the Athens club continued to frustrate them.
AEK kept piling it on. They were simply too strong for Malaga in every department. Then came the exclamation point. A Greg Brown III dunk in transition moved the lead to 17 points. The three-peat attempt was being dismantled in dominant fashion.
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This was workrate
Obviously AEK have serious talent on their roster. You don’t get to this stage of the Basketball Champions League without it. What we saw on Thursday night was much more than that. It was an obsessive belief in the whole.
By the time the second half started, James Nunnally was the only player with more than 2 field goals. They were the living embodiment of Al Pacino’s speech from Any Given Sunday, tearing themselves apart for that inch.
It’s not that Unicaja Malaga weren’t trying, they simply didn’t have it in them on the day to be this ruthless. Even after getting the first three buckets of the third quarter, it didn’t feel like a comeback was in the offing. There was no reason to think they could outlast, let alone overhaul, this AEK side.
A different challenge but the same task
The one area where AEK know Rytas Vilnius will match them is workrate. The question for this side ahead of the final is one of control. If they can set the terms on which the final is played, they should have more than enough for the Lithuanian club.
They should still be wary. Rytas enter this game as underdogs and will have the crowd on their side. Once more, they are playing with house money. That’s a risky foe on any given night.
Yet, seeing AEK this comprehensive makes it hard to look past them. How often can you call bullying unselfish? That’s what we really saw in Badalona on Thursday night. A repeat of this, and there are few of the prior 9 championship teams in Basketball Champions League history that could live with them.
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