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Round 4 at a glance

Round 4 at a glance

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Riding the record stats

Joventut Badalona (2-1) enters Round 4 as the best three-point shooting team as it has knocked down an unbelievable 52.8% of three-point shots this season. Joventut has great shot selection, attempting the second-fewest threes, 17.7 per game, and making 9.3 on average. The best-ever single-season percentage is 45.4% by Valencia Basket back in the 2002-03 season and no team since the 2013-14 campaign has finished the season shooting better than 43.0% percent.

Joventut has nine players who have attempted at least 1 three-pointer eight players who have made at least 1 shot, and seven of them are shooting 50.0% or better. Andres Felize leads the way at 75.0%, Henry Ellenson is at 62.5% and Pau Ribas at 60.0%, all ranked among the top 10 through three rounds. Now, they host an athletic Prometey Slobozhanske (2-1) which has made just 25.3% of its three-pointers this season.

Henry Ellenson is tied for fifth with 62.5% three-point shooting through three rounds.

Newcomer Paris Basketball (2-1) will look for its third win when Gran Canaria (2-1) comes to the French capital. Paris has been exciting to watch with a strong game in the paint led by Ismael Kamagate, who leads the EuroCup in blocks (3.3 bpg.) and is tied for third in rebounding (9.0 rpg.), while Kyle Allman ranks second in scoring with 20.0 points per game. As a team, Paris ranks second in scoring (89.0 ppg.) on a fourth-best two-point shooting (58.7%), second in blocks (4.7 bpg.) and fourth in rebounding (39.0 rpg.). On the other hand, Gran Canaria makes more threes than any other team, 12.7 per game, and attempts more triples more than any other team (32.0 per game). Both numbers are on pace to be the highest ever in EuroCup history. A.J. Slaughter leads the way with 3.3 triples per game, while Ferran Bassas, Vitor Benite and Nico Brussino have made 2.3 per contest.

Streaks and milestones

Another team on a record pace is Germani Brescia (2-1), winner of its last two games, which has an average PIR of 109.0, on pace for the best-ever, a record currently held by 2007-08 Joventut (108.5). Brescia also ranks third in scoring (88.3 ppg.), rebounds (42.0 rpg.) and two-point accuracy (59.5%) and fourth in blocks (4.0 bpg.). It will put all those numbers to the test against the only undefeated team left, Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse (3-0). Playing its third season in the competition, this has been the first time Bourg has strung together three wins in a row and it will look to make it four. Bourg already won on Italian soil two weeks ago against Umana Reyer Venice and will hope to get the job done again.

On the other end of the spectrum is Dolomiti Energia Trento, which has a 0-3 record but averages 20.3 assists per game. The only team that dishes it better than Trento is a newcomer Hapoel Tel Aviv (2-1), led by assists leader J'cowan Brown (7.7 apg.). Hapoel and Trento play each other on Wednesday in what could be an assists-filled encounter. Trento will try to end its 15-game losing streak dating back to last season.

Meanwhile, Slask Wroclaw (0-3) will look to end its eight-game losing streak at home against Turk Telekom Ankara (2-1). The last time Slask won a EuroCup game was in March of last season, against Trento.

Coach Emanuele Molin and Trento looking to snap a 15-game losing streak

Champs re-unite in neighboring clash

Two teams that did not start their season quite like they imagined will play a Round 4 game with a must-win feel to it when Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana (0-3) makes a 250 kilometer trip to play Umana Reyer Venice (1-2) on Wednesday. Cedevita is the only winless team in Group A and Reyer picked up its first win of the season last week at Cluj-Napoca. The two sides played last season, splitting home wins, including Reyer's 77-70 win before Cedevita won 105-90 in Ljubljana.

It will be a chance for a pair of reigning EuroCup champions and frontcourt teammates from the past two seasons, Amar Alibegovic and Amedeo Tessitori, to catch up and go against one another. The two played for Virtus the past two seasons, helping it reach the EuroCup Semifinals in 2021, and win the 2022 crown. This season, both players have had up-and-down showings. Tessitori scored 12 points in the season opener, but has played only 6 minutes in the last two games, in which he was scoreless. Alibegovic scored in double digits in home games in Rounds 1 and 3, but was scoreless in Cedevita's only road game so far this season.

Long awaited trips

In its 16th EuroCup season, Buducnost VOLI Podgorica (2-1), which has played 185 games in the competition, is set to do something it has not done before - travel for a EuroCup game on British soil. Tuesday's visit to the London Lions (1-2) comes more than two decades after its last trip to face a team from London which came in the 2000-01 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season when Buducnost beat London Towers 88-95.

Earlier that same day, in the Round 4 opener in Group B, Veolia Towers Hamburg (2-1) will play its first official game in Greece when it pays a visit to Promitheas Patras (2-1). On Wednesday in Group A, U-BT Cluj-Napoca will play an official game against a club from Lithuania when it travels to play 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys (1-2). Even though Cluj is a EuroCup newcomer it has been playing in European club basketball competitions for more than three decades, however, it has before never played against a Lithuanian opponent. It will also be a chance for Lietkabelis forward Zeljko Sakic to play against his former team, where he was a teammate of then-teenager Nandor Kuti and played under head coach Mihai Silvasan.

Another player who might see many of his former teammates is newly signed Frutti Extra Bursaspor (2-1) swingman Sindarius Thornwell. He made his competition debut with ratiopharm Ulm (1-2) last season and helped the team reach the quarterfinals by averaging 10.5 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists, starting in each of his 13 appearances. Bursaspor welcomes Ulm on Wednesday in Group A.