Justin Cobbs of Buducnost VOLI Podgorica was already having his best 7DAYS EuroCup season yet, but the 30-year-old point guard has been playing lights out the last three rounds, leading his team to a Group B-best 5-2 record while outperforming every other player in the competition.

Who's Hot: Justin Cobbs, Buducnost VOLI Podgorica

With a half-dozen players missing time, including All-EuroCup center Willie Reed, it was time for other Buducnost players to step up.

Cobbs, one of the top players in the competition since 2018 and already considered a team leader in his third consecutive season in Podgrocia, took responsibility to turn his game up a couple of notches and produce at career-high levels.

To get to so high, he had to start low, and that for Cobbs was Buducnost's first loss of the season in Round 4 at Umana Reyer Venice, where he had 12 points and 0 assists with 3 turnovers. But Cobbs bounced right back the following week with the best performance of his career.

Cobbs scored a career-high 33 points while making 3 of 3 triples and 12 of 12 foul shots in a 31-point Round 5 victory over Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana. He dished 5 assists and picked up a career-high 4 steals, accumulating a PIR of 44, not only his personal best but higher than any player in the competition since January 2020.

The Buducnost playmaker backed up that performance with a 17-point night a week later in Round 6, on the road against Promitheas Patras. Cobbs had 5 assists and pulled down 5 rebounds, tying his previous best, and also added 3 steals in helping Buducnost to a 29-point road win with his 26 PIR, the sixth-best of his career.

Cobbs went on to top that last week, with a PIR of 27 in a home loss against Gran Canaria. He scored 18 points along with 5 assists, 3 rebounds and a pair of steals, also drawing 9 fouls to make 10 of 12 free throws.

Cobbs has scored in double figures in every game and has dished at least 5 assists in six of the seven so far. Over the last three, however, no EuroCup player has flown higher than his accumulated 97 PIR.

Each of his performances in that span ranks among the seven best of Cobbs's 64-game EuroCup career. Not only is his PIR average of 32.3 over that span is 4 points higher than the next-best player, but his per-40 minute PIR of 40.2 leads the league since Round 5, too.

His average of 22.7 points ranks third over the last three games and nearly doubles what he averaged before this season. Cobbs entered this campaign putting up 11.5 points per game for his career. His best scoring season was 2019-20, when he averaged 15.4 over nine games.

After his latest scoring spree, Cobbs is posting 18.7 points along with 4.9 assists and career-best 2.0 steals this season.

Buducnost and head coach Aleksandar Dzikic would like to see Cobbs keep it going, of course, and he will try that this week when Buducnost travels to face Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse on Tuesday.



Justin Cobbs 2- Buducnost VOLI Podgorica (photo Buducnost) - EC21

The relationship between luck and defense came full circle in Round 7 of the 7DAYS EuroCup as Gran Canaria's perimeter shot defense showed the first signs of balancing out.

Stats Review: Luck and defense

### High-Gravity Matchup

Gran Canaria scored a timely road win over Buducnost VOLI Podgorica to create a three-way tie between those two clubs and Virtus Segafredo Bologna at the top of Group B. Gran Canaria held Buducnost to 4-for-19 shooting from beyond the arc, which would reflect a strong defensive effort for any team but was an especially significant development for a team whose previous opponents had shot 44% from beyond the arc coming into that game.

While one might assume that number is rooted in the way Gran Canaria was closing out shooters in the first six games. But the Gran Canaria defenders had actually done a decent job chasing perimeter threats off the three-point line. The inflated three-point percentage of their opponents was at least partially the result of bad luck.

### What Teams Can't Control

Luck has long played a role in the EuroCup Regular Season. The low volume of games in the previous format meant a good bounce here or there could prove critical to a team fighting for a spot in the Top 16. Even with the move to an 18-game regular season, there's a strong chance that making the top eight in either group could hinge on a single shot that results in a one-game shift in the standings.

It is one thing when that shot is a deep buzzer-beating three-pointer, but every season there's a few teams that tend to suffer a bit more than others from bad bounces to the point that a pattern emerges. Those bounces tend to show up as outliers on the team's analytics in two key spots:

1. Opponent free throw percentage.

2. Opponent unguarded three-point percentage.

Short of not getting called for fouls at all, there's not much a team can do about opponent free throw percentage. As for shots from the field, at a certain point luck comes into play when those shots bounce in at a disproportionately high rate against one particular team.

Gran Canaria has been a perfect example of that this season but managed to fall into a third option, given how few games have been played this season. Through the first six rounds, Gran Canaria's opponents had scored a league-high effective field goal percentage of 66% on pull-up jump shots in half-court situations. With the league average sitting at just 43% and only a dozen teams allowing over 50% over the last five seasons, that's the type of outlier-level performance that clearly falls beyond a team's control.

The graph above plots every team in the EuroCup this season in the three areas where, historically, bad luck has tended to manifest itself on the defensive end.

Only two teams have watched their opponents hit more than 79% of their free throws so far this season: Buducnost VOLI Podgorica (83%) and Turk Telekom Ankara (85%). For Buducnost, that is largely the result of a small sample size caused by their status as an outlier in terms of fewest fouls committed. But for Ankara, it has given their opponents an edge of 2 points per game relative to average.

There are teams on both sides of the spectrum in terms of the way their opponents have made open spot up attempts against them this year. Slask Wroclaw has made a concerted effort to take away shots inside this season, but opponents have aided Slask, too, by making just 27% of their open attempts level off at an eFG% of just 39%. With the next 15 teams falling between a defensive eFG% of 50% and 60%, Wroclaw stands alone on the right side of that cluster. In contrast, Frutti Extra Bursaspor, Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse, Promitheas Patras, and Liektabelis Panevezys make up a second cluster away from the pack that represents the teams paying a far steeper price than average for their mistakes on the perimeter.

The final barometer for teams this season suffering from bad luck – pull-up jump shot defense – is a bit of a different animal than the previous two as defenses can have a much more meaningful impact on the percentages teams shoot against them off the dribble compared to entirely uncontested attempts. Gran Canaria may not be the best defense in the EuroCup in defending these attempts, but they are not as ineffective as their numbers suggest, either. And while there is an element of "who" and "where" involved in why some of those shots fell for their opponents, there's a degree of bad luck involved as well.

In the new EuroCup format, the question remains whether teams with bad defensive luck so far will eventually move into the normal range of outcomes early enough to get a boost in the standings.

### Looking Ahead to Round 7

For all the shots above the mean that have fallen against Gran Canaria, they nonetheless find themselves vying for position atop Group B. They'll have a chance to find out if their defense is due for better luck against their opponent's pull-up jump shooting when hosting Virtus Segafredo Bologna, the team that leads the EuroCup in pull-up jump shooting efficiency, in Round 8. Their showdown will determine which 5-2 team will still be at the top of the standings next weekend.

Philipp Herkenhoff - ratiopharm Ulm (photo Gran Canaria) - EC21

Joventut Badalona made sure one of the finest products of its renowned youth system will stay in the club as it announced on Friday that guard pep Busquets has signed a contract extension that will keep him in Badalona until June of 2025.

Busquets, Joventut together until 2025

Busquets (1.98 meters, 22 years old) has started in one of his seven appearances this season in the 7DAYS EuroCup, and averages 5.4 points, 2.1 rebounds and 0.9 assists in over 16 minutes on court. He had his best game at Lietkabelis Panevezys with 9 points, 1 assist and 2 steals. This is his second EuroCup season.

"I am very happy" Busuqets said. "It's been almost 10 years in Joventut, and being able to be with the people that were by my side in a big chunk of my journey as a basketball player is great. Now I just want to return the trust that the club has put in me, and hopefully for many more years."

<center>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="ca" dir="ltr">💚🖤 𝐏𝐞𝐩 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐭𝐬, 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐝-𝐢-𝐧𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐥 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓<br><br>🔝 La Penya s’assegura la continuïtat de la jove perla de la generació del 99. Som-hi, <a href="https://twitter.com/pepbusquets4?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@pepbusquets4</a>!<br><br>👉 <a href="https://t.co/q6Y6zfxXqA">https://t.co/q6Y6zfxXqA</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Badalona%C3%89sFutur?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BadalonaÉsFutur</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SomElBressol?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SomElBressol</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/For%C3%A7aPenya?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ForçaPenya</a> <a href="https://t.co/13UJswYMjg">pic.twitter.com/13UJswYMjg</a></p>&mdash; Club Joventut Badalona (@Penya1930) <a href="https://twitter.com/Penya1930/status/1471789789015908352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

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Buducnost VOLI Podgorica and Gran Canaria battled on Wednesday with first place in Group B at stake. Both teams arrived with remarkable absences; Gran Canaria was without two starters - playmaker Andrew Albicy and center Artem Pustovyi - and Buducnost was without former Gran Canaria big man Jacob Wiley, Igor Drobnjak and team captain Petar Popovic. Gran Canaria ended up registering a 76-83 victory to remain undefeated against the Montenegrin powerhouse in 7DAYS EuroCup action.

Team effort helped keep Gran Canaria undefeated on the road

With Pustovyi sidelined, Gran Canaria's frontcourt players stepped up big to lead their team to a valuable road victory. Miquel Salvo finished the game with a career-high 15 points. He made 4 of 7 shots inside the arc, both of his shots from downtown and his only free throw attempt. Salvo added 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 assist and 3 fouls drawn for a personal-best PIR of 16. John Shurna had 14 points and 8 rebounds, Oliver Stevic was effective with 6 points and 7 rebounds and Khalifa Diop had 8 points in less than 12 minutes as well as some key defensive stops down the stretch which allowed Gran Canaria to seal the outcome.

"It was very important for us. We were playing bad in our last games," Salvo said after the game. "I think we needed this game. Now, a lot of victories are coming."

Chris Kramer and A.J. Slaughter did not have big scoring nights, but made up for Albicy's absence by organizing their team's offense close to perfectly. Kramer and Slaughter combined for 9 assists and just 3 turnovers. Dylan Ennis struck three times from downtown in the opening minutes and finished the game with 14 points. Nico Brussino had 15 to complete Gran Canaria's great team effort.

Gran Canaria powered the offensive glass and was accurate from beyond the arc, which were the biggest keys to this game. The Spanish powerhouse buried half of its 24 three-point shots and limited Buducnost to just 4-of-19 shooting from downtown (21.1%). Gran Canaria outrebounded the hosts 34-41, including 15 offensive boards. Everyone in Gran Canaria had at least 1 defensive rebound, and all the players but Ilimane Diop had at least 1 assist, which points out the great team effort it displayed in the Montenegrin capital.

"We started the game really well, dominating the rhythm, with great control of the rebounds, but in the third quarter, our percentages gave us the advantage in the scoreboard," Gran Canaria head coach Porfi Fisac said after the game. "In the last quarter, they pushed a lot with their defense and made better decisions on offense in the last minutes."

Gran Canaria remains the only team undefeated on the road in the 2021-22 7DAYS EuroCup; it previously defeated Promitheas Patras, Valencia Basket and Frutti Extra Bursaspor. Its final EuroCup game in 2021, however, will take place at home against mighty Virtus Segafredo Arena on Wednesday, December 22.

Khalifa Diop - Gran Canaria (photo Buducnost) - EC21

Buducnost VOLI Podgorica v Gran Canaria (2021-12-15T18:00:00.000Z)

Cristiano Felicio and Sindarius Thornwell became just the second 7DAYS EuroCup teammates in the last five years to share an MVP honor after leading ratiopharm Ulm to a 96-86 win over Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse with PIRs of 26 each, the highest among winning players in Round 7. 

Round 7 co-MVPs: Felicio and Thornwell, Ulm

Remarkably, the last time teammates were co-MVPs, both were Ulm players, too; Zoran Dragic and Derek Willis in Round 5 of the 2019-20 regular season. Prior to that, Lietkabelis Panevezys teammates Ksystof Lavrinovic and Zygimantas Skucas were two of three players who shared the MVP honor in Round 2 of the 2016-17 season. This time, Thornwell led Ulm with 23 points, based on his 6-for-9 three-point and 5-for-6 free throw shooting, in addition to 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal. Felicio registered a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds, which included 6 on the offensive glass. Felicio and Thornwell in fact ranked sixth in PIR for Round 15, but all five players above them lost their games. Errick McCollum of Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar had a PIR of 31 after scoring 27 points in his team's loss to Hamburg Towers, and Dolomiti Energia Trento forward Jordan Caroline matched that PIR with 20 points and 12 rebounds in defeat to Turk Telekom Ankara. Gediminas Orelik of Lietkabelis Panevezys lost despite amassing a PIR of 29 with 23 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals against MoraBanc Andorra. And after Calvin Harris had a 28 PIR in Bourg's loss to Ulm, Justin Cobbs recorded the same despite Buducnost VOLI Podgorica suffering defeat at the hands of Gran Canaria.

### Individual highs: Balsa Koprivica, Partizan, 4 blocks

McCollum's 27 points were the highest scored this week. His Lokomotiv teammate Johnathan Motley remains the leading marksman this season with 23.9 points per game. Caroline and Jaka Blazic of Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana topped all Round 7 rebounders with 12 apiece. Caroline joins Vince Hunter of Boulogne Metropolitans 92 atop the EuroCup rebounding charts with 8.7 per game. The top assister of Round 7 was Semaj Christon of Ulm with 10, while Andrew Albicy of Gran Canaria is the new leader of the overall assists chart with an average of 7.5. Gabrielius Maldunas of Lietkabelis Panevezys grabbed 4 steals this week, more than any other player, but Albicy remains the EuroCup's steals leader with 2.5 per night. Partizan NIS Belgrade's young center Balsa Koprivica equaled the competition's season-high by blocking 4 shots. Octavius Ellis of Turk Telekom Ankara ranks first overall with 2.3 blocks per game. Blazic (10 points, 12 rebounds), Caroline (20 points, 12 rebounds), Christon (13 points, 10 assists) and Felicio (20 points, 10 rebounds) all recorded double-doubles in Round 7.

Sindarius Thornwell - ratioharm Ulm (photo Larry Langer - Ulm) - EC21

Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar and Evgeny Pashutin have reached an agreement to terminate his head coaching contract, the club announced Thursday.

Lokomotiv, Coach Pashutin part ways

Pashutin, 52, was in his second stint with Lokomotiv, which he led to the 7DAYS EuroCup title in 2013. Lokomotiv had a 5-2 record in the EuroCup and was 5-3 in the VTB League when the decision was taken. Pashutin had replaced Luca Banchi in December of 2019. Before joining Lokomotiv for the first time, Pashutin had led UNICS Kazan to a EuroCup title in 2011 and had been a two-time EuroLeague champion as an assistant coach with CSKA Moscow, in 2006 and 2008. Last season, Pashutin led Lokomotiv to the EuroCup Quarterfinals and the VTB League semifinals. Assistant coach Branko Maksimovic will lead the team in the next games on an interim basis, the club said in its announcement.

"We would like to thank Evgeny Pashutin for his fruitful work over two and a half seasons. He led the team during the challenging times associated with the pandemic and has had some success," Lokomotiv president Andrey Vedishchev said. "Recently – already for quite a long time – Lokomotiv did not show the required level of play, defense and rotation, and this situation forced us to make this decision. I hope our fans will take this news with understanding."

<center>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">⚡️ Evgeny Pashutin steps down as PBC Lokomotiv Kuban head coach.<br>⠀<br>We want to thank Evgeny for his work and wish him good luck in a future carrier 🙌<br>⠀<br>Branko Maksimovic is appointed the acting head coach.<br>⠀<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/lokobasket?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#lokobasket</a> <a href="https://t.co/fyTojcfcln">pic.twitter.com/fyTojcfcln</a></p>&mdash; Lokomotiv Kuban (@lokobasket) <a href="https://twitter.com/lokobasket/status/1471383111770456065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Evgeny Pashutin - Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (photo Fedor Aebor - Lokomotiv) - EC21

This is what the protagonists of the game had to say after such a close deal down the stretch.

Post-Game Quotes: Partizan 75-73 Slask


### Zeljko Obradovic, Partizan NIS Belgrade

"It was incredible, the end of the game. Everything is about decisions – bad decisions defensively, offensively no concentration. Something that we really need to understand why it happened. A miracle that we won the game. Congratulations to Slask because they played a very good game. We had three players out with some problems but you need to react and find a way to win the game. An important victory for us, without question, but the way we played was not good at all."

"Thanks to our fans. They were always involved in the game in a positive way."


Virtus dumps Promitheas for third straight win, 91-72

Kyle Weems led the winners with 18 points and Amar Alibegovic added 14 for a balanced Virtus attack. Jerai Grant paced Promitheas with 15 points and Dario Hunt added 14. The game was tied, 43-43, at halftime before Alibegovic, Marco Belinelli and Michele Ruzzier fueled a 22-2 run that broke the game open late in the third quarter. Little changed after that and Virtus sealed the outcome long before the final buzzer. 

Weems needed just 4 seconds to get Virtus going with a dunk. Alessandro Pajola soon added a layup for a 4-0 lead. Grant stepped up with a three-point play and Nikolaos Gkikas added a triple to tie it at 6-6. Jaiteh hit a jump hook, igniting a 10-2 run in which Teodosic and Weems each struck from downtown to give the hosts a 16-8 margin. Kendrick Ray made a jumper, Isaiah Miles bettered Alibegovic's layup with a triple and Nikolaos Rogkavopoulos added a three-point play to bring Promitheas within 18-16. Weems and Jaiteh combined for 7 points in a 9-0 run that Jakarr Sampson capped with a dunk for a double-digit Virtus lead 27-16. Agravanis and Giannopoulos brought the guests within 27-23 after 10 minutes.

Amedeo Tessitori dunked early in the second quarter but Dario Hunt got Promitheas even closer, 29-27. Belinelli buried a three-pointer and, after Hunt scored in the paint, Jaiteh answered with a layup for a 35-29 Virtus lead. Gaddy scored in penetration and a red-hot Hunt followed a put-back layup with a dunk to tie it at 35-35. Tessitori kept pushing Virtus. Miles and Teodosic traded three-pointers and Gaddy sank a jumper to get within 41-40. Grant buried a mid-range jumper and Rogkavopoulos tied it again, 43-43, at halftime. 

Grant's put-back slam gave Promitheas its first lead, 43-45, right after the break. Alibegovic answered from downtown and Teodosic found Weems for a dunk and a 48-45 Virtus lead. Grant followed a layup with a jump hook and then fed Agravanis for a close basket that made it 48-51. Alibegovic followed a layup with a three-pointer in a 7-0 run that gave the hosts fresh air at 55-51. Gkikas stepped up with a fastbreak layup but Belinelli did better with a triple and Sampson scored twice in the paint for a 62-53 Virtus margin. Belinelli buried a big triple and Ruzzier boosted the margin to 70-53, after a 22-2 run. Ray's triple fixed the score at 70-56 after 30 minutes.

Sampson buried a floater early in the fourth quarter. Grant tried to change things for Promitheas but Ty-Shon Alexander swished a triple that kept Virtus way ahead, 75-58, with 6 minutes remaining. Hunt dunked again and Gkikas added a wild three-point play that gave Promitheas hope at 77-63. Alibegovic banked in a jump hook and Weems added a fast break slam that sealed the outcome, 81-63. Promitheas never gave up, but the Virtus fans in the stands had plenty of time to celebrate a comfortable home victory. 

Virtus Segafredo Bologna v Promitheas Patras (2021-12-15T19:30:00.000Z)

Kyle Weems 2- Virtus Segafredo Bologna (photo Virtus) - EC21

After getting 14 points in Round 1, Virtus Segafredo Bologna power forward Amar Alibegovic had struggled in his team's last five games. Over that span, Alibegovic averaged 4.2 points on 5-of-15 two-point shooting (33.3%) and 1.6 rebounds. 

Alibegovic bounces back in Round 7

Alibegovic bounced back in style in his team's Round 7 victory against Promitheas Patras. He finished the game with 14 points, hitting his 4 attempts inside the arc and shooting 2-of-5 from downtown. Alibegovic added 7 rebounds, matching his 7DAYS EuroCup career-high, for a PIR of 17, a new season-high. 

Amar Alibegovic - Virtus Segafredo Bologna - EC21