Paris vs. Buducnost: Two teams with big aspirations
Both Paris Basketball (8-5) and Buducnost VOLI Podgorica (8-5) have already secured their place in the 7DAYS EuroCup Playoffs, but during Wednesday night's showdown at Halle Georges Carpinter, these two teams with aspirations of reaching the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague will be able to test themselves against one another.
When Buducnost hosted Paris in Round 5 in their first-ever meeting, it was Paris that came away with the victory, winning 74-77. Coach Will Weaver's team leaned on a 7-point swing in the fourth quarter to improve to 3-2, while Buducnost tactician Vlada Jovanovic saw his team drop to 3-2.
The two teams had the same record after that Round 5 game, and they come into Wednesday's contest with an identical record, too: 8-5. Kyle Allman was one of Paris's best performers that day, pairing 13 points with 4 rebounds and 5 assists, but he has not played since Round 10 due to injury and will miss his team's game against Buducnost.
Instead, Paris will have to rely on some of its other top performers from its Round 5 matchup, as Aamir Simms, Juhann Begarin, Amar Gegic and Ismael Kamagate all got into double figures for points. Last time out, Paris lost 118-99 on the road at Gran Canaria, with Simms scoring a career-high 22 points, while Tyrone Wallace, who didn’t play against Buducnost, was not far behind with 19. In the absence of Allman, Wallace has also become the team's lead playmaker.
Michael Roll had 17 points against Gran Canaria, but he has now left Paris after only signing a short-term deal. Gegic added 14 points, Gauthier Denis chipped in with 12 and Jeremy Evans had 11, so it will be important that Paris finds scoring options from multiple players at Halle Georges Carpinter.
Kamagate, however, is coming off his worst performance of the season, having struggled up against Gran Canaria's center duo of Khalifa Diop and Aleksander Balcerowski. The 22-year-old finished with 2 points, his joint lowest total of the season, and 5 rebounds. Only in one game has he had fewer rebounds: against Buducnost in Round 5 (4). Kamagate will therefore be hoping to turn things around on Wednesday, as he looks to get the better of Alpha Kaba.
Yet, Kaba will be feeling pretty confident ahead of his second matchup with Kamagate. When they met in late November, Kaba dominated the Paris center, recording a 17-point, 16-rebound double-double and also getting 3 steals. The Buducnost big man has been a force in this year's EuroCup, and another dominant performance may see his team exact some revenge for its Round 5 defeat to Paris.
Only Phil Booth and Trae Bell-Haynes joined Kaba in reaching double digits for scoring in Round 5, however Booth is no longer on the team's roster. Buducnost has been combing the market in recent months and has added some players to help it on its push to reach the EuroLeague, such as Erick Green, J.J. O'Brien and, in the last few days, Manu Lecomte. Green and O'Brien have played since Round 10, while Lecomte could make his debut in Round 14.
In Buducnost's last game, a 78-68 triumph over the London Lions in Round 13, Green led the way with 16 points, while Bell-Haynes scored 14 and Cameron Reynolds contributed 11. O'Brien, a 2021 EuroCup champion with AS Monaco, had 8 points on his fourth appearance for the team, with his average in those games standing at 8.5 ppg. Green, meanwhile, a player with 102 games experience in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, has hit the ground running, scoring at least 16 points in three of his four games so far.
With just five games to go until the end of the regular season, this clash between Paris and Buducnost could go some way towards determining the playoff seeding in Group B. What's more, given that Paris won by 3 points in Round 5, Buducnost will be eager to overturn that deficit in order to win the tiebreaker, should it come down to that.
Both Paris and Buducnost have their sights set on the EuroLeague, and Wednesday's game in the French capital could be a chance for one of these two to show that they are ready to take the step-up to Europe's premier club basketball competition.