Team effort has Valencia thriving

Valencia Basket managed to protect its home floor on Thursday night for the fourth time this season and improve its record to 5-1 with a 79-71 win over ALBA Berlin. Despite the two teams being on opposite ends of the standings, it was far from easy for Valencia which found itself trailing for most of the fourth quarter before a strong finish.

"This is EuroLeague and you have to earn every win," Valencia hero Semi Ojeleye said after the game.

Ojeleye led Valencia with team highs of 19 point and 7 rebounds, and also had 2 steals. He shots 4-for-6 from long range, and he exited the game with 20 seconds to the ovation of "MVP" chants from the stands.

"They cheer MVP for all of us, that's how we play," said Ojeleye, who refused to accept much of the credit for this Valencia win. 

"EVERYBODY contributes to the win", Ojeleye made sure to stress. "Even the guys who don't suit up. That's how we play.

Game Videos

In reality, he was right. While he had a fine performances, Valencia would not have gotten the job done without Brandon Davies scoring 8 consecutive points in the final 2 minutes during a 16-2 game-clinching run.

Stefan Jovic gave the team a much-needed spark in the third quarter, while Jared Harper and Chris Jones each made key baskets.

"We have a great team because we stay together, and we have a great coach because he believes in us", Ojeleye added.

Such an approach contributed to the team's fifth win in six games as Valencia sits in a second-place tie with Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. It's been a start to the season few would have predicted and one that has made Valencia an early-season surprise-story.

Game News

Valencia Basket v ALBA Berlin (2023-11-02T19:30:00.000Z)

Valencia Basket Club matched its best-ever start to a EuroLeague season (5-1) with a come-from-behind win over ALBA Berlin (1-5) at La Fonteta in Round 6 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season.

Valencia Basket Club finished strong to beat ALBA Berlin 79-71

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Semi Ojeleye scored 19 points to help Valencia Basket rally past ALBA Berlin. 

The hosts used a late 11-0 run to take control of the game and match the club's best start to a EuroLeague season at 5-1.

Valencia finished strong to beat ALBA Berlin 79-71

AS Monaco Basket made it four EuroLeague wins in a row with a strong second half to down Olimpia Milano, which has now lost four straight.

Monaco Basket keeps rolling, downs Olimpia Milano 66-72 

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Mike James of AS Monaco scores a layup during his team's Round 6 win against EA7 Emporio Armani Milan in the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season.

Mike James showed his clutch gene once again to guide the French team to its fourth straight win.

Monaco keeps rolling, downs Milan 66-72 

EA7 Emporio Armani Milan v AS Monaco (2023-11-02T19:30:00.000Z)

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne finally celebrated victory again as the French side rallied to beat Zalgiris Kaunas [88-91 ](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/game-center/2023-24/zalgiris-kaunas-ldlc-asvel-villeurbanne/E2023/49/)and snap an 18-game losing streak - thanks in large part to an amazing fourth quarter performance by [Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/players/timothe-luwawu-cabarrot/012080/).

ASVEL was down by 13 points, 78-65, at the end of the third quarter, but the team found the energy defensively to hold Zalgiris to just 8 points in the fourth quarter and fight its way back into the game. 

Trailing 86-82 with 2:30 minutes to go, it was time for Luwawu-Caborrat to take over. The former NBA player grabbed a steal and was fouled, resulting in 2 free throws. He followed that with 3 perfect foul shots after getting fouled by Zalgiris leader Keenan Evans on a shot from the arc. 

Then, with his team still trailing 88-87, he grabbed a Zalgiris miss, dribbled the ball up the court, and did not give it up. Eventually he drove to the lane, stopped and hit a jumper with 19 seconds for an 88-89 ASVEL lead.

<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">Le shoot de la soirée 😍<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LDLCASVEL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LDLCASVEL</a> <a href="https://t.co/0cjuxmBs2q">pic.twitter.com/0cjuxmBs2q</a></p>&mdash; LDLC ASVEL (@LDLCASVEL) <a href="https://twitter.com/LDLCASVEL/status/1720174295161164270?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 2, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 

Finally, Luwawu-Caborrat locked up the win when he secured another Zalgiris miss with 2.7 seconds left, providing the final score with 2 more free throws.

Over that final stretch, the 28-year-old out-scored Zalgiris by himself 9-2. He finished with 19 points – tying his career high – to go with 6 rebounds, 1 assist and 3 steals. 

"I felt great," Luwawu-Caborrat said about the end of the game. "That's what I am here for. I was waiting for that moment for a long time. I am very happy that I could help the team win at the end."

Luwawu-Caborrat missed the last two games and he went scoreless in 15 minutes again Anadolu Efes Istanbul in Round 3. And he said the team was really relieved about its first EuroLeague win in 9 months and 7 days.

"We've been waiting for that win for a long time. Finally it's here. We are very happy," he said. "We played together from the beginning to the end. It was a great game. We got our thing together in the second half and that's how we won." 

Luwawu-Caborrat added that the team never doubted it would win.

"We never thought we would lose, and that is the spirit we need," he said. "That's the spirit we had. I'm just so happy right now."

More ASVEL News

ASVEL needed something extraordinary to get back in the win column after more than nine months and  Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot delivered.

Luwawu-Cabarrot made sure ASVEL snapped 18-game losing streak

Zalgiris Kaunas v LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (2023-11-02T18:00:00.000Z)

Georgios Papagiannis stepped up in the final minutes of Fenerbahçe Basketball's Round 6 EuroLeague game against Olympiacos B.C. to help his team come out with the win.

Papagiannis came up big in crunch time to down Olympiacos

Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul center Johnathan Motley committed his fifth foul of the game with 4:47 left on the clock [against Olympiacos Piraeus](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/news/euroleague-live-blog-fenerbahce-basketball-vs-olympiacos-bc/) and the score 69-66 in the hosts’ favor. Just as things seemed to be going south for Fenerbahce, up stepped [Georgios Papagiannis](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/players/georgios-papagiannis/005844/).

The Greek center, who was on 7 points by that point, came off the bench for the final minutes of the game to try and halt an Olympiacos comeback attempt, with the visitors having trailed by as many as 16 in the first half.

Nikola Milutinov tied the game, 71-71, for the first time with 3:35 to go, but Papagiannis stepped up and drilled a big triple on the other end. However, Nigel Williams-Goss responded with a crucial three-pointer, 74-74, with 2:27 remaining, forcing Fenerbahce head coach Dimitris Itoudis to call a timeout.

Georgios Papagiannis had 15 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 block and 0 turnovers as Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul beat Olympiacos Piraeus 79-77 in Round 6 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season.

Georgios Papagiannis's highlights vs. Olympiacos

### Papagiannis to the rescue

When his team needed him most, Papagiannis came to the fore and dunked off a Marko Guduric alley-oop pass before stealing the ball on the other end. In the space of a few seconds, he sank his third triple of the night for a 79-74 Fenerbahce lead with 1:10 remaining.

The Turkish side’s big man ended up finishing the game with a team-high 15 points, having gone 3-for-3 on two-pointers – all of which were dunks off alley-oops passes – and 3-of-5 on triples.

<center>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="tl" dir="ltr">MVP MVP MVP! 🔥 <br><br>👉 Georgios Papagiannis! 👏<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/YellowLegacy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#YellowLegacy</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bug%C3%BCndenYar%C4%B1naHaz%C4%B1r?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BugündenYarınaHazır</a> <a href="https://t.co/KHfoC6qW7Z">pic.twitter.com/KHfoC6qW7Z</a></p>&mdash; Fenerbahçe Beko (@FBBasketbol) <a href="https://twitter.com/FBBasketbol/status/1720178091983564881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 2, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Heading into Thursday’s duel, Papagiannis had gone an impressive 6-for-7 from downtown, making him a huge threat for any opponent both from behind the arc and in the paint.

“When us bigs have the freedom to shoot, it opens up space for everybody in the basket,” Papagiannis said in the post-game flash interview. “We have really good chemistry passing to each other. Of course, we made some mistakes, but we are going to look forward and learn from our mistakes.”

### Coach Itoudis focused on Papagiannis’s defense

As Itoudis stressed afterward, Papagiannis also stood out on the other end as his contribution on defense was crucial in the last few minutes of the contest. After all, in addition to his 15 points, the former Panathinaikos Athens star grabbed a couple of rebounds to go with 2 steals and 1 assist, while he had zero turnovers.

“Today, Papagiannis needs an extra applause,” Itoudis stated. “He was big on both ends. Not only scoring-wise, because he played great defense and rebounded the ball and was intimidating with his verticality and his length, trying to challenge all the shots and all the layups.”

Fenerbahce Istanbul-Olympiacos Piraeus | Round 6 Highlights | 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague

Papagiannis’s PIR of 19 is his highest of the season, despite having scored 15 points both against Panathinaikos and EA7 Emporio Armani Milan as well.

It has to be noted that in crunch time he was assigned with the task of facing Milutinov, whose average PIR of 20.2 was the sixth best in EuroLeague heading into this game. Nevertheless, the Greece international delivered on both ends, making a big impact down the final stretch.

After recording its fourth straight victory, Fenerbahce's next game is on the road at Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade next Thursday night, with Itoudis once again coming up against his mentor, Zeljko Obradovic.

More Fenerbahce News

Georgios Papagiannis of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul smiles after his team beat Olympiacos Piraeus in Round 6 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season.

The Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul center played a pivotal role in his team grabbing the win.

Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul v Olympiacos Piraeus (2023-11-02T17:45:00.000Z)

There are no more winless teams in the EuroLeague as LDLC ASVEL finally grabbed its first victory of the season, rallying from 13 points down to beat Zalgiris Kaunas 88-91 in Round 6. 

ASVEL stuns Zalgiris, 88-91, for Coach Pozzecco's first win

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LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne center Joffrey Lauvergne scored 13 points to lead his team to victory in Kaunas. 

Despite trailing by as many as 13, ASVEL took charge late to rally for the club's first win of the season.

Fenerbahçe Basketball grabbed an important 79-77 victory at home against Olympiacos B.C. in Round 6 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season to extend its winning streak to four games. 

Fenerbahçe holds on to beat Olympiacos, 79-77

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Nigel Hayes-Davis of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul attempts to get past Nigel Williams-Goss of Olympiacos Piraeus during the two teams' matchup in Round 6 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season.

After an electrifying start to the game, the hosts almost let a 16-point slip but managed to still come away with the win.

Fenerbahce holds on to beat Olympiacos, 79-77

KK Crvena zvezda rallied from a 14-point third-quarter deficit to beat FC Bayern Munich 74-68 at Stark Arena in Round 6 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season.

Crvena zvezda rallies from 14 down to nip Bayern, 74-68

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Adam Hanga of Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade celebrates during his team's Round 6 win against FC Bayern Munich in the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season.

Yago Dos Santos's triple made sure of the win with 20 seconds to go.

Crvena Zvezda rallies from 14 down to nip Bayern, 74-68

Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade v FC Bayern Munich (2023-11-02T17:30:00.000Z)

Check out four bold predictions from EuroLeague.net staff members for Round 6 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season. 

Bold predictions for Round 6

### Mike James will put on a show against Milan

#### *by Geoff Gillingham*

Ever since being told by Ettore Messina that he should leave EA7 Emporio Armani Milan in the summer of 2019, Mike James has always tried to remind the Italian coach of just how great a player he is. This Thursday night, the three-time All-EuroLeague guard will face Milan for the eighth time since leaving. Excluding a Round 14 game in the 2021-22 season when he played just 2:42 minutes due to injury, James has averaged 19.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.2 steals when playing against his former Italian employer. James has started the 2023-24 season in red-hot form, showing once again that he will be in consideration for the EuroLeague MVP prize come next May, and I expect him to play a key role as the 3-2 AS Monaco piles more misery on Messina’s 1-4 Milan.

Since leaving EA7 Emporio Armani Milan in the summer of 2019, Mike James has averaged 19.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.2 steals in six games against his former employer while playing for CSKA Moscow (2019-21) and AS Monaco (2021-present).

Mike James magic vs. Milan

### Sfairopoulos will get his first win with Zvezda

#### *by Frank Lawlor*

Ioannis Sfairopoulos has had 10 days and two close losses against the maestro across town, Zeljko Obradovic of Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, with which to work out how he wants Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade to play and get his charges to buy into that vision. Although his counterpart on Thursday, Pablo Laso of FC Bayern Munich, has had a head start on a similar process, enough time has passed now for Sfairopoulos to put the kind of discipline and positivity in Zvezda's game that he's known for – and to see it start bearing fruit. His rotations in the backcourt with Shabazz Napier, Milos Teodosic, Yago Dos Santos and, if he's available, Nemanja Nedovic, will be key. But Sfairopoulos is well practiced at figuring out what players work best together, and with a home crowd at their back and plenty of incentive not to drop a game at home while the new system takes hold, I see him and Zvezda getting into the win column together on Thursday.

### Ibaka will have a monster game in Belgrade

#### *by Javier Gancedo*

FC Bayern Munich travels to the Serbian capital to face Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade. It could be a good opportunity for Bayern center Serge Ibaka to show he can still play at a really high level. Ibaka has been seeing limited playing time, around 20 minutes per night, but still manages to lead the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague in blocked shots (2.2 bpg.), also averaging 9.2 points and 7.5 rebounds for a PIR of 12.5. He is the best per-minute rebounder in the competition, averaging 14.9 prorated over 40 minutes. Ibaka posted those numbers without shooting the ball particularly well (56.0% 2FG, 16.7% 3FG, 60.0% FT). He can match Joel Bolomboy's physicality and can also give Mike Tobey and Marko Simonovic a lot of trouble. With added playing time, a fully adjusted Ibaka can be a major problem for all opponents from now on.

Serge Ibaka Top Plays of the 2023-24 Regular Season

2023-24 EuroLeague season highlights: Serge Ibaka, FC Bayern Munich

### ALBA will upset Valencia

#### *by Igor Petrinovic*

Valencia Basket is on a high. It shares second place in the standings, having won four of its first five games, including [a resounding 15-point victory last week in Kaunas](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/game-center/2023-24/zalgiris-kaunas-valencia-basket/E2023/45/), where it led by as many as 29 points. Over the weekend, Valencia downed FC Barcelona in domestic league action. Through five rounds Valencia's defense has not allowed a team to score more than 77 points. Meanwhile ALBA [stunned EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 85-82](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/game-center/2023-24/alba-berlin-ea7-emporio-armani-milan/E2023/37/#boxscore) last week behind a career-best game from big man Johannes Thiemann and solid performances from other veterans such as Matt Thomas, Louis Olinde and Sterling Brown, who is averaging 16.7 points over the last three games. I see Valencia letting down a little bit after a series of challenging games, which also included clashes against Maccani Playtika Tel Aviv and Anadolu Efes Istanbul in the last 14 days. A confident and pressure-free ALBA is a dangerous visitor and I see the team from the German capital going into Valencia and upsetting the hosts.

Virtus Segafredo Bologna v Anadolu Efes Istanbul (2023-11-03T19:30:00.000Z)

Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz v Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade (2023-11-03T19:30:00.000Z)

FC Barcelona v Panathinaikos Athens (2023-11-03T19:30:00.000Z)