This Week's Games: Many milestones to play for

Several teams will be aiming to reach milestones, including Valencia Basket in a battle of two teams with the most wins in Group B. Let’s examine some storylines to follow in Round 11’s games this week.

Valencia looking to re-write history books

When it put together a game-ending 0-10 run to squeeze past Promitheas Patras 68-71 last week, Valencia Basket registered its 161st win in the competition and tied UNICS Kazan for the most all-time. Valencia will have its first chance to become the winningest team in EuroCup history this week when it welcomes Buducnost VOLI Podgorica on Tuesday in a clash of two teams tied for the Group B lead with 7-3 records.

Valencia already has two home losses and the one on the road that came against Buducnost in Round 2. Interestingly, among Valencia's 161 wins, only one has come against the perennial Montenegrin champion, which is a rare opponent that Valencia has a losing record against. The two teams have played three times and Buducnost has won twice, including a thrilling 71-70 decision in Round 2. In that game 25-year-old forward Edin Atic led Buducnost with 17 points. However, Atic has combined to score just 34 points in six appearances since that game and has been held scoreless in the last two games while shooting 0 for 11 from the field. It would be a perfect time for Atic to get back to his early-season form as Buducnost is coming off a 21-point home loss against ratiopharm Ulm.

This game will feature a pair of big men who missed the first clash, All-EuroCup center Willie Reed and his Valencia counterpart Mike Tobey, who shined last week with a career-high 22 points and 9 rebounds. Despite being depleted, Valencia has lost just one of its last seven games and extending this winning run would not only set the EuroCup record for wins, but put Valencia in first place in the group.

Time to get going

Dolomiti Energia Trento (1-9) and Slask Wroclaw (1-8) are three wins behind eighth place in Group A. And with eight games to go for Trento (and nine for Slask), they need to get some wins and need to get the work started this week. Slask welcomes Boulogne Metropolitans 92 (5-5) on Tuesday and will try to avenge a 3-point loss from Round 2. It will be interesting to pay attention to the battle in the paint. Slask is the second-best rebounding team, pulling down 38.2 per game. But Slask still pulls down fewer rebounds than its opponents, which average 40.2 per game. So, the team that has guards Travis Trice (11.1 ppg., 6.0 apg.), Jakub Karolak (10.3 ppg.) and Kodi Justice (10.7 ppg.) in main roles will need its frontcourt with big men Kerem Kanter (7.8 rpg.) and Cyril Langevine (6.6 rpg.) to help take better control of the glass.

On the other hand, Trento is the EuroCup's only team with 9 losses and, not surprisingly, the worst point difference at -137. This week it faces MoraBanc Andorra (5-4) on Wednesday. Going into this game, Trento has scored a total of 724 points so far this season, which is 10 fewer than Andorra, which has played one game less. Trento relies on the EuroCup’s top rebounder Jordan Caroline (7.9 rpg.), the team's top scorer Cameron Reynolds (14.0 ppg.) and Wesley Saunders (10.1 ppg.) and they will need any help they can get to try to start turning things around and snap a five-game losing streak.

High stakes with different rosters

Wednesday's Group B clash between Mincidelice Bourg (3-7) and Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana (3-5) looks to be one with high stakes. It is crowded at the bottom part of the standings in Group B, with Bourg and Cedevita in the middle of it all. Cedevita won their first clash in Round 2 by 12 points, which is something to watch. Bourg's confidence is sky-high after its road win at Umana Reyer Venice (4-5) on a buzzer-beating triple by C.J. Harris, the team's top scorer with 15.1 points per game on 59.1% three-point shooting. Along with the addition of swingman Jalen Jones, who is has been worth 13.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in two games since joining the team earlier this month, this is a very different team than the one that faced Cedevita in the Slovenian capital in Round 2.

But no team has changed the shape of its roster since the beginning of the season as much as Cedevita, which added veteran center Alen Omic and playmaker Yogi Ferrell in early December, before signing veteran forward Zoran Dragic earlier this month. Alongside All-EuroCup guard Jaka Blazic, former All-EuroCup playmaker Jacob Pullen, as well as proven EuroCup veterans who have had their share of dominant performances in the competition like Melvin Ejim and Zach Auguste, Cedevita is a dangerous team. However, it is coming off a game in which it scored just 60 points last week at home against Gran Canaria. Coach Jurica Golemac's men will need to do a lot better than that on Wednesday to pull out a road win.

Reaching for milestones

For Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar, this Round 11 game will be the club's 150th in the competition. This is Lokomotiv's ninth EuroCup season, and it has had a winning record in all but one of those campaigns. Lokomotiv is looking to become the eighth team in competition history to reach the milestone and is right behind Buducnost (173 wins), which will tie ALBA Berlin for sixth place with its next victory. Another club with a chance to move up the ranks is ratiopharm Ulm (5-5), which hosts Virtus Segafredo Bologna (6-3) in search of its 119th EuroCup win, which would move it into a tie for 10th all time. Regardless of the outcome, this week's games will be special for two long-time team captains and club legends, Ulm's Per Guenther and Buducnost Suad Sehovic who are each set to make their respective 100th appearance the next time they enter the game. They will join a club of only 17 players who have previously reached the milestone.