The visitors converted just 12 of 41 shots from downtown in Game 1
Baskonia failed with failed three-point barrage
Article
3 Mins read
Less than three weeks after winning at Real Madrid in Round 33 of the regular season, Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz was put firmly back in its place as the reigning champion powered to a 90-74 home triumph on Tuesday in the playoffs opener.
The strategy employed by Coach Dusko Ivanovic’s team is clear to see from the stats sheet: three-point shooting, three-point shooting...and more three-point shooting. However, the numbers also show that the approach did not really work.
Throughout the opening 30 minutes, Baskonia consistently maintained a ratio of two long-range attempts for every shot from inside the arc, reaching the end of the third quarter with a massive 33 three-pointers compared to just 17 from two-point range.
The imbalance was somewhat addressed inside the final 10 minutes, finishing with 16-of-26 on two-pointers (61.5%) and 12 three-point conversions on 41 attempts (29.3%).
Baskonia’s cause certainly was not helped by the fact that chief sharpshooter Markus Howard had his playing time cut short, firstly with a minor knee injury after a collision with Rudy Fernandez and then by moving to 3 fouls early in the second half.
Howard was only able to spend 18 minutes on the floor but still finished as his team’s leading scorer, netting 15 points on 3-of-9 three-point shooting.
But Baskonia’s most potent long-range marksman was actually young forward Nikos Rogkavopoulos , who made 4 of his 9 deep strikes to finish with 14 points.
Otherwise, however, the visiting team generally misfired with its three-point barrage. The trio of Tadas Sedekerskis, Vanja Marinkovic and Dani Diez particularly struggled, combining for just 1 conversion on 11 attempts.
Of course, the state of Howard’s knee will be a major concern for Baskonia over the next couple of days – if he can double his time on the floor from 18 to 36 minutes, the Basque team will have a much better chance of grabbing a shock road win in Game 2 on Thursday.
But Baskonia will also need much better accuracy from deep, and probably a better balance between its inside and outside game.