It’s the middle of another double-round week in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season. AS Monaco beat Panathinaikos Athens at around 23:50 local time last night to wrap up Round 27, and ALBA Berlin hosts Virtus Segafredo Bologna to start Round 28 barely 18 hours later. There were four road winners in Round 27: Zalgiris Kaunas, Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, EA7 Emporio Armani and Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz. All of them play at home in Round 28 except Partizan, which faces Milan at Mediolanum Forum. It is a tactical battle between two of the all-time greats, Ettore Messina of Milan and Zeljko Obradovic of Partizan. Don’t miss it!
Some star players in the EuroLeague Fantasy Challenge powered by Ardu Prime underperformed in Round 27. Not many teams were without Sasha Vezenkov of Olympiacos Piraeus and/or Mathias Lessort of Partizan. Shane Larkin was a last-minute scratch, too, joining Vasilije Micic in Anadolu Efes Istanbul's injury list. My team Gancedato had three Efes players, but none of them was Larkin. I had Vezenkov and Lessort, but also Will Clyburn of Efes as team captain and Dzanan Musa of Real Madrid, who really saved the day. My coach, Andrea Trinchieri of FC Bayern Munich, won in Round 27, too. Even with that, I had just 117.1 fantasy points because almost everything else went wrong. Even with that, I went up in the standings and rank 2,065th overall, which is kind of surprising. I guess a lot of people had Vezenkov, Lessort and Larkin.
Unless another game is postponed, three trades will be allowed before each round until the end of the regular season. I am selling Coach Trinchieri because Bayern plays against Olympiacos, the first-ranked team in the standings. Instead, I am buying Kazys Maksvytis of Zalgiris: cheaper, and his team comes off a road victory to play at home against 17th-place LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. I am selling Paris Lee of Panathinaikos Athens, who played very well for a while but not in Round 27. I am trading Lessort mainly because Partizan plays against red-hot Milan, and Chris Singleton of Efes because he barely played earlier this week.
That was easier than I thought. Of course, if I had more than three trades, I would be very happy to use them, but it is what it is. I am buying Darius Thompson of Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, who comes off a huge performance in his team's road victory in Madrid. He had 14 assists and just one turnover. Since Baskonia plays at home against high-scoring Monaco, I am also buying Matt Costello at center. That leaves me with around 8 credits for my final trade, and I am getting a former Baskonia player, Achille Polonara of Zalgiris. He has finally found his rhythm and I expect a great performance from him against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.
You can take a look at my team here:
