Saras Jasikevicius’s squad downed Partizan in Round 7
The sky is the limit for Fenerbahce – but there are still things to improve
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Regular Season
Round 7 of 34
Regular Season
Fenerbahce Beko IstanbulFBB
8972
Partizan Mozzart Bet BelgradePAR
Overview
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Entering the 2024-25 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul was among many people’s picks to make next May’s Final Four. Not much has changed in that regard after seven rounds, but Fenerbahce’s 89-72 win over Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade showed plenty of the team’s strengths, as well as a few things Saras Jasikevicius will be looking to tighten up.
First, the good parts. Fenerbahce set a season high with 19 three-point makes, with Tarik Biberovic knocking down 5 and Nigel Hayes-Davis and Devon Hall hitting 4 apiece. Those 19 triples are the joint third most Fenerbahce has hit in a EuroLeague game, which exemplifies the weaponry Coach Jasikevicius is able to call upon. Thanks to its three-point shooting against Partizan, the Turkish side was able to pull away and never look back.
Fenerbahce made several notable additions during the offseason, including Wade Baldwin, Bonzie Colson and Nicolo Melli, and that resulted in expectations rising. It has not all been perfect to start the season, but wins over Olympiacos Piraeus, Anadolu Efes Istanbul, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv and Partizan – four teams with recent playoff experience – cannot be overlooked.
Another positive aspect to Fenerbahce’s triumph over Partizan was the way in which it moved the ball, dishing a season-high 24 assists. The main orchestrator was Baldwin, who had a season-best 8 dimes and did a good job of getting everyone involved. Marko Guduric also helped with the playmaking duties, notching 5 assists himself.
However, as Hayes-Davis told EuroLeague TV after the game, Fenerbahce allowed Partizan to generate hope at various points in the contest, despite being up by more than 20 points in the first few minutes of the fourth quarter. The 29-year-old, who was named to the All-EuroLeague First Team last season and had a game-high 24 points in Round 7, believes that he needs to be more switched on defensively speaking.
“We’ve got to take the good with the bad,” Hayes-Davis said. “Coach was talking about we’ve got to run faster, we’ve got to push the ball more – we did a good job of that. More importantly, we have to do better defensively, starting with me.
“In this game, I felt like I was being targeted on defense. It’s not a good feeling, I don’t like it, and it looks bad when your team’s best player and leader is getting blown by for layups, so I really need to take the challenge of playing both sides. We got up 20 and let the score go down, got up again and let the score go down, so in order to take a step from good to great team, we have to be consistent on both ends of the ball, starting with me.”
Fenerbahce boasts a 5-2 record through the first seven games, good for the joint second-best mark in the EuroLeague, but it has already played five games at home and lost two of those.
Still, Coach Jasikevicius’s men face LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in France next time out before hosting FC Bayern Munich – another 5-2 team – and travelling to take on the 6-1 Zalgiris Kaunas – the team atop the standings – in the next double-round week in Rounds 9 and 10.
Fenerbahce has blown hot and cold at times this season, but the sky really is the limit when the team is locked in.