Final Four opens the doors only for Montepaschi so far
Turkish Fenerbahce could not tie the series against Montepaschi Siena that became the first team to advance to the Euroleague Final Four. Italians were stronger even in Istanbul 65:86.
Ksystof Lavrinovic (210-C-79) and Bootsy Thornton led the winners with 18 points. Terrell McIntyre (175-G-77, college: Clemson) netted 16 points and Romain Sato collected 13 points and 8 rebounds. Omer Asik ended up with 12 points in the losing clause. Montepaschi Siena came to Turkey with 1-0 in the series and did not desire to come back to Italy for another game. Terrell McIntyre's basket made it 2:9 in the opening tip of the game. With another 0-9 run Siena finished the quarter at 15:25. A comeback from the hosts saw the game within three points at the half. At first Damir Mrsic cut the gap to 28:33 and then Fenerbahce had closed the deficit to 34:37. It seemed that Fenerbahce would benefit from the game, however Montepaschi Siena had another opinion. Italians capped a 0-16 run for 36:51. At that time the game was over. Thomas Ress layup that ended the third quarter at 45:62. Nothing had changed in the last period as Turkish side could not stay closer. One of the favorites of Euroleague CSKA Moscow remained alive in the Quarterfinal Playoffs and will play game 3 versus Olympiacos Piraeus. In Greece Moscow team revenged with 73:83 to tie the series.
Olympiacos opened the game with 27:15 proving that the first win was not occasional. CSKA however caught them up in the second quarter and had 4 points by the halftime. Ramunas Siskauskas (197-G-78) led all the winners with 20 points. Trajan Langdon (192-G-76, college: Duke) finished with 18, while Smodis scored 17. Woods top-scored for the hosts with 19 points and 7 rebounds.
Partizan Igokea tied the series against Tau Ceramica 76:55 at home in Belgrade. Partizan also ruled the backboards with a 37-28 rebounding advantage. Nikola Pekovic (210-C-86, agency: Beo Basket) finished the game with 19 points for the winners. Velickovic collected 17 points and 12 rebounds, while Uros Tripkovic added 14 points. Igor Rakocevic (191-G-78) chipped in 15 points for Tau.
Gianluca Basile (192-G-75) shined for Barcelona in a 83:74 win over Maccabi. The series is tied at 1-1 as well.
Copyright 1998-2007 Eurobasket Inc.
Macijauskas: We want to be in the Final Four but we know that nothing will come easy
Olympiakos and its playoff opponent, CSKA Moscow, played twice in the regular season and split home victories. The big difference now is that Olympiakos will have two key people whom they didn't have in those previous games: head coach Panagiotis Giannakis and shooting star Arvydas Macijauskas (192-G-80). Although he was injured off for more than nine months, Arvydas Macijauskas had started the season as the Euroleague's top-ranked player through 10 games. He returns for the playoffs, after two months and the game against Real Madrid, still trying to regain game shape under a new coach with a new system, but he was glad to talk about the upcoming series at Euroleague.net.
'I am recovered from the injuries finally, and feeling better and better every day. But I still need this time before the playoffs to get back into playing shape and get my timing and do it without taking away from the team. The team has been playing without me a long time, and playing well, so all I want to do is add to what they have already been doing. We want to be in the Final Four and CSKA wants to be there, too, so we know that nothing will come easy, but we are preparing to be ready.'
'I only started being able to play a couple of weeks ago, so for me it is not easy yet. While I was out, of course, we had a coaching change, and I had only played for the coach who left. Now with coach Panagiotis Giannakis , it's up to me to learn the new system, and the truth is that we have changed a lot the way we play. First, in practice, I want to contribute and help the guys get better, and then be able to do the same even if I go on the court for a few minutes in a game. The chemistry is good with our new coach and I want to help with that chemistry.'
About his injury, the Lithuanian star mentioned that 'I had one injury, my back, and then when I was playing again for a couple of days, got injured again. Nothing was very big, but still the injuries took me out of basketball for a couple months, which was not good for me and not good for the team. But fortunately, we have a lot of good players and a good team. Everyone is happy, and it's not important if one player here or there cannot play, because everyone feels responsibility to help the team.'
Concerning the new style on the Reds' game, he stated that 'defense has definitely become the most important part of the game for us now. That is what we concentrate on, and that helped the team win. The mood of the team was good, and even though we lost the Greek Cup final that we wanted to win, and came close, we will have to forget about that. The mood will still be good going into the playoffs because we want to get ready for CSKA and we don't want anything to interfere with us trying to take the extra step to the Final Four.'
'At home, we are a very strong team with our fans behind us. The fans give us an advantage against anyone. That's how we beat a team like Real Madrid, which was hoping to be at the Final Four in their city and was built to make it there. This was more than an accident. We have a lot of faith playing at home, and that's what makes the first game against CSKA the most important. If we make something happen in Moscow, we know that we can beat big teams on our own court. CSKA, of course, is full of good players and they have one of the best coaches anywhere, someone who does a good job no matter where he goes. What's most important about CSKA is that they know how to play team basketball. That makes a team much more difficult to stop. When a team depends on one or two guys, they can be stopped. This is what's so good about CSKA: it's a great team that plays like a team.'
Copyright 1998-2007 Eurobasket Inc.
Tal Burstein rejoins Maccabi after injury
After nearly a full year on the sidelines, three-time European champion Tal Burstein is set to rejoin Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv. Burstein has not played wince May 31, 2007, when he stole a half court in bound pass by Terence Morris, then in the red jersey of Hapoel Migdal Jerusalem, to secure Maccabi s triumph in the Israeli League final. On Tuesday night, Burstein, now recovered from a leg injury and with specially fit sneakers to help him, practiced for the first time this season with head coach Zvika Sherf's team. He might even be on the roster already for the upcoming Top 16 game on Thursday night against Zalgiris Kaunas, but the fans, the team and Tal himself will have to wait a little bit longer before he ll leave some sweat on court. Burstein, who missed a big part of the previous season due to a different injury, had to go under surgery during the off-season to heal a rare lesion on both feet. Between then and now he faced a long rehabilitation process, which took a lot of strength and mental energy, but the Maccabi swingman remained focused on the target his return to the courts. "It's natural to think about giving up in such a situation, but it crossed my mind only for split seconds," Bustein told Euroleague.net. "I was lucky to get great support from my family, friends and Maccabi during this whole time, and it helped me focused on the goal," he said minutes before joining his teammates for the first time this season.
"There's no set timetable as to when I'll be ready to play," Burstein continued. "It all depends on how I feel and when I'll be in shape again. Obviously then it'll be up to the coach to decide if and when I'll play. All I know for sure right now is that I'm very, very excited to step on court again. I went through a similar process with th e previous injury, but the excitement is still there. I watched our team go through a lot during this season changes on the bench, injuries to key players, some nights we would like to forget and some we'll cherish forever. It was quite an experience to sit and watch it from the side, a little frustrating at times, but now I'm more than ready to find my spot, play the game again and hopefully help the team reach the Final Four again. If there's something I missed more than anything else, it was the big games, with the great atmosphere and pumped up adrenalin. I'm sure we'll have some of those until the end of the season, and I hope to play a key role in them, and bring our team to its targets."
Copyright EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL 2008
Maccabi Elite advanced to the Quarterfinal Playoffs
Maccabi Elite advanced to the Quarterfinal Playoffs after a thriller in Spain over Real Madrid. A fascinating game in the capital of the country the hosts lost 100:103 as Derrick Sharp scored six free throws in the final stanza for the guests. Terence Morris (206-F-79, college: Maryland) led the winners with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Yotam Halperin (196-G-84, agency: Arik Krayn Services) and Nikola Vujcic (211-C-78, agency: Interperformances) followed him with 13, while Esteban Batista (208-F/C-83) scored 10. Felipe Reyes (203-F/C-80) collected 21 points and 11 rebounds in defeat. Maccabi needs a win against Zalgiris next week to win Group F. Real Madrid will have a battle versus Olympiacos for the second ticket.
Madrid team got an early 7-2 lead as Hervelle scored from long distance. Mumbru and Felipe Reyes kept Madrid ahead with 23:19 after the first period. The hosts increased to 6-point advantage in the beginning of the second quarter and had 40:34 edge. Terence Morris fixed the halftime score at 46:40 still for the team from Madrid. Louis Bullock sank his second three-pointer to give the biggest lead for the hosts, 58:45. Maccabi however stayed in the game and produced a 0-11 run to finish the third at 70:71. A back-to-back game in the last period dominated for the entire time. Yotam Halperin tied the game with a jumper for 78:78 and then Terence Morris made the same for 86:86. Real had the last lead at 94:93 and then followed the winning team. Derrick Sharp from the free throw line set up the final, 100:103 advantage for the guests.
Copyright 1998-2007 Eurobasket Inc.
February MVP: Bootsy Thornton, Montepaschi Siena
Some of the most crucial games of any Euroleague season come in the first half of the Top 16, when a good start to the new round can point the way toward bigger success later. Only two teams won all three Top 16 games in February, and between them, Montepaschi Siena was the bigger surprise. To win a crucial overtime game on the road and then to stop the defending champions, Siena relied on the experience of the last holdover from the club's previous Final Four teams, Marvis "Bootsy" Thornton, who is Euroleague Basketball's choice as MVP for February. Thornton showed all month that, true to his history in the competition, he keeps lifting his performance precisely when the games get tougher. Thornton did so in his first go-round with Siena, in the 2003-04 season, almost doubling his numbers during the Top 16 and Final Four. Last month, he got rid of the "almost", more than doubling his regular season scoring average to assure Siena's perfect 3-0 record and first-place standing in Group D of the Top 16. After his eight-steal performance in a home victory over Partizan Igokea to open the Top 16, Thornton willed in a crucial late shot to seal an overtime win at Efes Pilsen and then led all scorers as Siena undid visiting Panathinaikos at home. Playing always within Siena's team-oriented system, Thornton finished the month with 16.7 points, 4 rebounds and 3 steals on average while helping his team's defense limit opponents to fewer than 70 points per game. For fitting perfectly into an undefeated Top 16 team but stepping up when needed, Bootsy Thornton is a more-than-deserving choice as Euroleague Basketball's MVP for February.
Euroleague Basketball's MVP of the Month honor is in its fourth season. Although statistics and performance ratings are taken into consideration for the award, they alone do not determine who is honored. The winner is named by Euroleague Basketball based on his and his team's performance during the previous month or more. The award for February was decided considering the three Top 16 games played by all teams during that month.
In February's first game, the Top 16 opener at home against Partizan, Thornton was credited with 8 steals as Siena's defense shut down the visitors in a solid 71-54 decision. He also scored 9 points and pulled 4 rebounds. Next, in the first away game of the round, Siena faced an Efes Pilsen team that had defeated Panathinaikos at home the previous week. Efes was leading by 11 points shortly before halftime when Thornton scored 6 in a row to make it a close game the rest of the way. He was there, too, with 18 seconds left in overtime to make an acrobatic shot that assured Montepaschi the 76-79 victory behind his team-high 18 points. Panathinaikos visited the next week with some not-so-slight pressure to steal a road win, but Siena stayed a step ahead of the champs all game to win 84-75. Thornton was the pace-setter on offense again, pouring in a game-high 23 points. His scoring included 5 points in a row when Siena fell behind soon after the tipoff, 6 more to start the second half and a key fourth-quarter triple when Panathinaikos had rallied to within 3 points of tying. By the time Thornton and his teammates were done, Siena had finished a perfect month sitting alone atop Group D with the biggest lead of any team in the Top 16.
Thornton had made his Euroleague debut and been Siena's top scorer at the 2004 Final Four, so his return this season was a treat in itself for the local fans. His performance in February, leading a workmanlike team to a perfect month in the toughest stage of the season, will have those fans dreaming bigger dreams now. They will also get to celebrate with Thornton again when he receives the February MVP award at an upcoming home game.
Copyright EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL 2008
Partizan, Efes Pilsen will play as scheduled
Euroleague Basketball has spoken to both Partizan Igokea and Efes Pilsen in order to ensure the utmost security during Thursday night's Top 16 game in Belgrade. Partizan and local police have guaranteed security for the visitors from Efes Pilsen, having presented a security plan approved by the Turkish Embassy in Belgrade. Euroleague Basketball has a representative present in Belgrade who will attend to any of Efes's concerns or needs while in the city. "The security of Euroleague teams is of utmost concern and will always be a priority," Euroleague Basketball CEO Jordi Bertomeu said. "Regarding the Efes players who have not gone to Belgrade, we know that the team is still trying to get them to come to Belgrade, although the game will be played regardless, as scheduled. Euroleague rules do not prohibit games from being played with fewer than the mandated 10 players on the bench, but call for a disciplinary proceeding to be considered when that minimum is not met. If Efes must participate in the game with fewer than 10 players, a course of action will be decided at a later stage."
Copyright EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL 2008
Unicaja captain Berni Rodriguez out 2 games
Unicaja captain Berni Rodriguez will miss the next two Euroleague Basketball games after spraining his ankle in a Spanish League game over the weekend. Rodriguez, who was battling ankle problems before the game, went down against MMT Estudiantes and will need two weeks to recover. Accordingly, the world champion swingman will sit out Thursday s game at Lottomatica Roma and Unicaja s Top 16 home opener next week against CSKA, but should be back on the floor by the time his team hosts AXA FC Barcelona on March 5.
Copyright EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL 2008
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