Even without Milos Teodosic, Ioannis Sfairopoulos's men have started the EuroLeague season with back-to-back wins
Crvena Zvezda enjoys its best-ever EuroLeague start
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3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 2 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade fans had plenty of reasons to celebrate on Tuesday night. Not only did their team beat Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 78-71, improving to 2-0 in the process, but Isaiah Canaan, Joel Bolomboy and Nikola Kalinic all delivered in crunch time, combining for 46 points.
Zvezda started the season with lofty ambitions and a record-breaking budget, but also a major setback: superstar playmaker Milos Teodosic would be unavailable for the opening two games due to suspension. In the absence of the Serbian Point God, summer addition Codi Miller-McIntyre delivered in both games, amassing 14 assists and committing just 3 turnovers to give Zvezda great balance on offense.
"Codi is a player that plays for his teammates, for the team," Zvezda head coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos said after beating Baskonia. "When we need him to score, he scores. When we need him to organize, he gives assists. He also had a great game in France [against Paris Basketball], rebounding, too. He can play defense, score, pass, rebounds... we are very happy that we have him."
In Round 1 against Paris, Nemanja Nedovic was almost unstoppable, missing just one shot on his way to 21 points. Curiously, Zvezda went 10-of-22 three-pointers (45.5% 3FG) in both of its first two EuroLeague games this season. In what needs to be an almost impossible coincidence, Zvezda also went 19-of-37 two-pointers (51.4% 2FG) against both Paris and Zvezda. The same number of shots made and attempted, inside and outside the arc, in two different games. Crazy.
This is Zvezda's 11th season in the EuroLeague, yet it had never started 2-0 – until now. Its next opponent is Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, which means a return to Belgrade for center Boban Marjanovic, a legend for all Zvezda fans. Marjanovic earned 2014-15 All-EuroLeague First Team honors with Zvezda, and was the last player in the competition to average a double-double (16.6 ppg., 10.7 rpg.). Teodosic will be back in action as the schedule gets tougher: following the visit of Fenerbahce, Zvezda hosts FC Barcelona in Round 4 and travels to the Spanish capital to face Real Madrid in Round 5.
There is no denying that this has been a great start for Zvezda, which is aiming to make reach the EuroLeague Playoffs for the first time since 2016. Last season, Zvezda ranked 16th with an 11-23 record and it took the team six games to get its second victory. Center Joel Bolomboy believes the team is heading in the right direction, but there is plenty of room for improvement.
"There are a lot of areas we can improve," commented Bolomboy, who is averaging 10.5 points and a team-high 9.5 rebounds through the first two rounds. "There are a lot of things we can improve on, especially offensively. There were moments where it felt like we didn't really know what play to run. But we made a lot of improvements tonight and won the game."