Partizan - Unbeatable at Home

Partizan is one of most diffucult teams for visitors to play against. The venue, Pionir, where Partizan plays their home games is generally packed with very loyal supporters in Euroleague fixture. Therefore, the team takes all the advantages of having this powerful backing while they clash with the top teams in the league.

It can already be seen in the stats that the winning percentage in the home court has been quite high during this season. For instance, in this first phase of this year's Euroleague, they won 4 home games out of 5. The only game they have lost is the one against the defending champion, CSKA Moscow. It was a one-point margin loss, which is quite acceptable. The teams that returned to their homes with empty hands were Real Madrid, Efes Pilsen, AJ Milano and Panionios.

The winning behavior is still continuing in Top 16. So far, they beat both Malaga and Lottomatica Roma in Pionir. They are now the second position in the group; have a good chance to move to the quarterfinals.

Real Madrid continues flying high

Real Madrid is still undefeated along with Panathinaikos after the third week in Top 16. Last night, Madrid team defeated the Israeli side, Maccabi Tel Aviv by 19 points, 98-79. It was a high quality match with lots of good skills, fightings, ups and downs for both teams.

Thanks to around 10,000 supporting fans, Madrid could easily sustain pressure on the guests during the game. They were quite though and intimidated the Maccabi players mainly in the paint. Reyes, Mumbru, Hervelle and Van den Spiegel created an unpleasant environment and didn't let them score easy points. Only, Lior Eliyahu managed to be productive for his team in the paint by scoring 20 points with a marvellous field goal percentage (10/11 2pt). The only player trying to keep Maccabi in the game was the former NBA player, Carlos Arroyo. He scored 21 points and had 5 assists.

For the home team, Louis Bullock performed very well and commanded Madrid during the time he was on court. He managed to score 24 points (4 three pointers) and to keep Maccabi at bay. Plus, Sergio Llull had a remarkable performance with 3 consecutive three pointers in the last 4-5 minutes of the fourth quarter.

Because Barcelona also won the game against Alba Berlin last night, the hope to promote to the quarter finals for Maccabi Tel Aviv has diminished. Now, they have to defeat both Barcelona and Real Madrid in the games that will be held in Israil. It shouldn't be enough though.

On the other hand, both Madrid and Tel Aviv did have a handful of players who used to play in Turkish teams before. These were Marcus Brown, Dee Brown, Charles Gaines, Quinton Hosley. It is good for the reputation of Turkish Basketball League.

Montepaschi beats CSKA in Top 16 game

In the first day of 3rd week of Euroleague Top 16, Montepaschi Siena won the game against the defending champion CSKA Moscow by 18 points margin; 74-56. They played quite well in the third quarter and outscored the visitors by 11 points. Especially Terrell McIntyre led the team by 23 points with an almost perfect field goal percentage. (3/4 2pt FG and 3/4 3pt FG.)

Even though they are relatively weak in the bench compared to CSKA Moscow, Montepaschi Siena has a very strong and neat starting line-up. The group of McIntyre, Sato, Eze, Stonerook, Kaukenas, Domercant and Lavrinovic is the core of this team and it is an obvious fact that they are capable of coping with any team playing in the Top 16. Besides, there is a court advantage with passionate supporters that pack the Palapasports every home game. Actually, it was one of the factors that Siena won the game last night.

In the meantime, CSKA Moscow has some serious issues concerning the integrity of the game they are playing. They couldn't successfully coordinate the defence and also made lots of turnovers in the second half which eventually let Montepaschi widen the scoring gap. I can't give a name of even one player from CSKA that played above average. Maybe Terence Morris made efforts a little bit but it was not enough to stop the home team.