Pablo Laso's side used a strong finish to get its second straight win
Efes turns to offense to sink playoff-hopeful Zalgiris
Informes de partidos
3 Min lectura
Regular Season
Round 27 of 38
Regular Season
Anadolu Efes IstanbulEFS
9282
Zalgiris KaunasZAL
Overview
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Anadolu Efes Istanbul came into this week with nine straight defeats and was in danger of setting the worst losing streak in club history. Well, 80 minutes, 199 points and 50 assists later, Efes pulled out two double-digit wins against a pair of playoff contenders.
On Friday night, Efes scored the final 13 points of the game to beat the visiting Zalgiris Kaunas 92-82 to top off a perfect double-round week.
“It feels good,” said playmaker Nick Weiler-Babb, who scored 13 points. “You get lost a little bit in the frustrations of losing, but it feels good to get a couple wins back at home. Let’s try to carry on the momentum.”
Weiler-Babb shot 3-of-7 from behind the arc, while the entire team made 16 three-pointers on 32 attempts and dished 24 assists. That is just two fewer than the 26 that Efes had on Tuesday in a 17-point win over Valencia Basket, and after Efes entered the week averaging just 16.8 assists.
“If you want to improve as a team, you have to be able to believe in your teammates,” Efes head coach Pablo Laso said, sharing a nugget of wisdom. “It was a great example of passing the ball around and finding the open man.”
It was only his third win in his 12th game Efes head coach, and his second against Zalgiris. Each of those three wins, however, came by a double-digit margin, and in each Efes scored at least 87 points, including 107 and 92 this week. In eight of the nine losses before this week, Efes was held below 80 points.
“Coach Pablo has been preaching about picking up our pace,” explained Jordan Loyd, the team’s top scorer on the night with 19 points on 4-for-6 three-point shooting. “We were playing a little bit slower before, and now we've just got to pick up our pace. We've got be aggressive offensively. And when we get a defensive rebound, push the tempo. I think that’s helped, and we are moving the ball much better.”
Efes made 10 first-half three-pointers – its joint highest figure through the first 20 minutes since this stat started to be recorded in the 2007-08 season – and the hosts were in control, holding a 10-point third-quarter lead only for Zalgiris to go in front thanks to a 2-18 run and open a 57-63 advantage.
In the fourth quarter, Efes used an 11-0 run to take a 76-71 lead, but Zalgiris answered with a 3-11 spurt to retake the advantage. However, Efes finished the game with a 13-0 run to get a regular-season sweep of Zalgiris.
“A lot of times we got in trouble; the fourth quarter was when teams switch against us, we kind of stopped the ball, we don’t move it very well,” Weiler-Babb said. “Today, we had a little spot when we stopped moving the ball, but we got back to moving the ball, playing a little bit faster. When we move the ball, the ball feels light and the shots go in.”
With an 8-19 record, barring a miracle run, Efes is out of playoff contention. However, the team proved this week it has every intention to compete until the very end. And once Shane Larkin returns after his lengthy absence, as well as Rolands Smits and Isaia Cordinier, Efes looks like a prime candidate to play the role of spoiler, just like it did against Zalgiris on Friday night.
