Nick Calathes continued his resurgence at Fenerbahçe Beko with a stellar performance against Anadolu Efes S.K. in the EuroLeague's Istanbul derby, which included two clutch threes in the fourth quarter.

The Nick Calathes redemption arc continued in the Istanbul derby

Nick Calathes has had a tough few months.

First, it looked like [Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/news/carousels/fenerbahce-beko-istanbul/?q=%7B%22articleId%22%3A%22%22%2C%22categoryId%22%3A%22%22%2C%22linkedId%22%3A%7B%22sourceSystem%22%3A%22FS_BASKETBALL_TEAM%22%2C%22sourceSystemId%22%3A%22ulk%22%2C%22text%22%3A%22%22%7D%7D&carouselTitle=Fenerbahce%20Beko%20Istanbul) was going to part ways with the legendary point guard last summer when it signed Raul Neto, only for the Brazilian to suffer an injury at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup. As such, Calathes was forced to stick around.

Then, following the surprising dismissal of Dimitris Itoudis, Calathes was reunited with his former head coach at FC Barcelona, Saras Jasikevicius. Infamously, the two didn’t leave on the best of terms during the 34-year-old’s final year at Palau Blaugrana, so many thought the appointment of Jasikevicius would spell the end of Calathes’s time in Istanbul. But, instead, the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague’s all-time leading assists provider is thriving under the Lithuanian tactician.

### Calathes came to the fore in the Istanbul derby

That was particularly evident during Thursday night’s Istanbul derby, as Calathes came up clutch for Fenerbahce in [an 84-89 win at cross-city rival Anadolu Efes Istanbul](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/news/euroleague-live-blog-anadolu-efes-sk-vs-fenerbahce-beko/). In 25:40 minutes on the floor, the Greece international recorded 17 points, 1 rebound, 8 assists and 3 steals, good for a 24 PIR, while he also had a +9 in the plus/minus category.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="tr" dir="ltr">Bizimkiler! 😎💛💙<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/YellowLegacy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#YellowLegacy</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EuroLeague?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EuroLeague</a> <a href="https://t.co/mAKZPfTMxv">pic.twitter.com/mAKZPfTMxv</a></p>&mdash; Fenerbahçe Beko (@FBBasketbol) <a href="https://twitter.com/FBBasketbol/status/1740461872820957318?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 28, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Importantly, in the closing stages of the contest, Calathes showed up to halt Efes’s momentum and all but silence the crowd inside Sinan Erdem Sports Hall. His dish to fellow backcourt starter Scottie Wilbekin, who drained a three-pointer, saw Fenerbahce regain the lead for the first time in the fourth quarter with just over 5 minutes to go. From there, it became the Calathes show.

It's worth noting that Calathes had made just 8 triples coming into Thursday evening’s contest, but he already had 1 from beyond the arc early in the first quarter and another deep two in the opening 10 minutes, which was centimeters away from being a three. So, with that in mind, Calathes appearing with 2 clutch threes in the fourth quarter wouldn’t have been predicted by many beforehand. Yet, it happened.

Nick Calathes had 17 points, 1 rebound, 8 assists and 3 steals as Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul beat Anadolu Efes Istanbul 84-89 in Round 17 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season.

Calathes's highlights vs. Efes

### Silencing the Efes crowd

As the shot clock wound down to the final seconds, Calathes came back out and sized up Shane Larkin before knocking down a deep, deep three over the Efes guard’s outstretched arm to make it 78-82 with 3:46 left. That was a big momentum swing, but what came next proved to be the dagger.

Tarik Biberovic received a pass from Georgios Papagiannis and quickly found an open Calathes on the perimeter, before Fenerbahce’s No. 33 hit his second triple of the fourth quarter to set an 82-87 score with 29.2 seconds remaining. The collective sigh in the Efes gym was palpable, while the Fenerbahce players all came together in celebration.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A win in the Turkish Derby 🚨 <a href="https://twitter.com/FBBasketbol?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FBBasketbol</a> get the Dub and the team surrounds <a href="https://twitter.com/Nick_Calathes15?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Nick_Calathes15</a> 👏🏼 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EveryGameMatters?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EveryGameMatters</a> <a href="https://t.co/7dXXDM5NiR">pic.twitter.com/7dXXDM5NiR</a></p>&mdash; Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) <a href="https://twitter.com/EuroLeague/status/1740454000141508770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 28, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Fenerbahce managed to see an 84-89 win over the line, and afterward Calathes was embraced by his teammates. From being ushered towards the exit to coming up with game-winning plays in the Istanbul derby, the veteran guard has shown that he not only has incredible talent but an equally impressive force of will.

It hasn’t been an easy few months for Calathes, but he continues to go from strength to strength under Jasikevicius. And on Thursday evening, another page was written in the Calathes redemption arc story.

More Fenerbahce News

Nick Calathes of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul has possession against Anadolu Efes Istanbul in Round 17 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season.

The Fenerbahce guard came up big against Efes to secure the win for his team.

Anadolu Efes Istanbul v Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul (2023-12-28T17:30:00.000Z)

EA7 Emporio Armani Milan excelled in all hustle stats against Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, finishing the game with 9 offensive rebounds, 11 steals and 4 blocked shots. It was Milan's third-best mark in steals this season. Its best was 14 steals in an 84-61 home victory over LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. Milan was also 1 block shy of matching a season high: it previously had 5 blocks three times this season.

Baskonia only pulled down 5 offensive rebounds against Milan's 29 defensive boards. In other words, Milan grabbed 85.3% of all boards under its own rim. Things were very different on the other side of the court. Baskonia allowed 9 offensive boards and grabbed 27 defensive one - 75% of all total rebounds.

Baskonia had fewer steals (9) and more turnovers (16). Five Baskonia players had multiple turnovers in this game. Baskonia matched its highest number of turnovers since Dusko Ivanovic returned to coach the team.

Game Videos

Milan's three-point defense was another key to this important victory. Baskonia only made 1 of 11 three-point shots (9.1% 3FG) in the first half, in which Milan took a double-digit lead, 46-31. The visitors did not do much better after the break, finishing the game with 3 of 17 three-point shooting (17.6% 3FG). Milan did not excel from behind the arc, but made 8 of 23 three-point shots (34.8% 3FG), which was significantly better than its opponent.

Finally, looking for advantages in the paint was decisive for Milan to win this game. Nicolo Melli, Johannes Voigtmann and Kyle Hines combined for 48 points on 14 of 22 two-point shooting (63.6% 2FG). On the other hand, Matt Costello, Chima Moneke, Maik Kotsar and Khalifa Diop combined for 28 points on 7-of-15 two-point shooting (46.7% 2FG).

Game News

Milan had five key players either injured or unavailable in Round 17 but still registered a 76-67 home victory over Baskonia.


Milan's hustle paid off against Baskonia

EA7 Emporio Armani Milan v Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz (2023-12-28T19:30:00.000Z)

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens breezed to an 82-65 home victory over Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade with a dominant display that kept the visitors on the back foot from start to finish in a lopsided contest.

Panathinaikos flexed its muscles on Zvezda to keep rolling

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens breezed to an 82-65 home victory over Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade with a dominant display that kept the visitors on the back foot from start to finish in a lopsided contest.

The Greek team improved to 10-7 with a fourth successive win, while Zvezda dropped to 6-11 as its inconsistent form continued after a lackluster performance from some key players, who shined in the previous round’s win over Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv.

At one end, Mathias Lessort served up a heroic performance after a horrific-looking fall he took in the Round 16 win at EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, when he landed on his back and looked set to miss the game against Zvezda.

The center played through excruciating pain, contributing with 13 points and 4 rebounds in 29 minutes on the court, personifying his team’s fighting spirit which saw Panathinaikos blow away Zvezda despite a relatively modest offensive performance.

Dinos Mitoglou's highlights vs Crvena zvezda

In contrast, last week’s MVP Milos Teodosic, who racked up a game-high 27 points and 14 assists in the 92-98 win at Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, was kept invisible at OAKA as he finished the game on 0 points, 3 assists and 2 turnovers.

Panathinaikos shot just 5-of-22 from downtown but confined Zvezda to 4-of-25, with the home team totally dominating the boards. Coach Ataman's men amassed 40 rebounds, 15 of them on the offensive end, while Zvezda collected 30 boards, of which 8 were offensive.

Poignantly, Zvezda also committed 14 turnovers while it only managed 12 assists, highlighting the home team’s ironclad defense.

Dinos Mitoglou, who posted 15 points and 5 rebounds in 23 rock-solid minutes on the court, thanked the home fans who turned up in droves at holiday time to support their team and created a cracking atmosphere.

“I want to congratulate the people who came here through these days. People usually go somewhere on vacation \[at this time of the year\] to take their minds off the city a little bit,” Mitoglou said after the game. “But they turned up, we had a wonderful crowd and a great atmosphere, so it’s a victory for them.”

Coach Ataman pointed out that stifling out Teodosic was crucial. “The guys showed great character and played great defense,” he said. “We enjoyed a convincing win even though we only shot 22 percent from three-point range, which is a testament to our defense. Kalaitzakis kept Teodosic out of the game and we also did a good job on Nedovic. We worked hard together.”

Zvezda coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos acknowledged his team never got going on offense. “We struggled a lot offensively as we never found the solutions that we needed,” he said. “We didn’t find easy baskets or open shots, especially in the second half.”

Panathinaikos is headed for a double-round week in Spain after New Year’s Eve, visiting Baskonia on January 3 before taking on Valencia two days later.

The Greens demonstrated their power with a clinical performance at both ends of the court.

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens v Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade (2023-12-28T19:15:00.000Z)

Real Madrid survived a number of absences and a strong physical effort by LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne and finished 2023 with a 76-77 road victory thanks to a big start to the fourth quarter. 

Fourth-quarter run was just enough for Real to get past ASVEL

Real Madrid survived a number of absences and a strong physical effort by LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne and finished 2023 with a 76-77 road victory thanks to a big start to the fourth quarter. 

ASVEL had answered every comeback attempt by Real throughout the first 30 minutes and led three times by 9 points. *Los Blancos* finally delivered the punch it needed with a 0-16 run in the first 5:46 minutes of the final frame to take a 10-point lead. The cushion was 11 points shortly thereafter but ASVEL responded one more time with a 15-4 run to even the game 74-74. 

Edy Tavares’s hook shot and a Facundo Campazzo free throw in the closing minute locked up the win, but the foundation was laid at the start of the final period. 

“We started to grab the rebounds and run and get some easy baskets. That’s what gave us a little bit of space. We should have been doing that from the beginning,” said Vincent Poirier, who led Real with 17 points including a number of big dunks.

“The game is decided in the last quarter. You have to give everything you have, all the power you have. You have to leave it all out on the floor. We did a great job, we played smart,” added Tavares, who tallied 16 points and 12 rebounds. 

<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">🔥 <a href="https://twitter.com/waltertavares22?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@waltertavares22</a> 🔥<br>😀 MVP <a href="https://twitter.com/autoheroespana?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@autoheroespana</a> del último partido de <a href="https://twitter.com/EuroLeague?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EuroLeague</a> del año <a href="https://t.co/1TGz2x75OU">pic.twitter.com/1TGz2x75OU</a></p>&mdash; Real Madrid Basket (@RMBaloncesto) <a href="https://twitter.com/RMBaloncesto/status/1740485449913717072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 28, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Real head coach Chus Mateo, who was missing Gabriel Deck, Mario Hezonja and Rudy Fernandez, said his team was really challenged by ASVEL but found a way at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

“We started to run a little bit more. We started to play our game, passing to each other. This is how we want to play,” the coach said. "Today it was not an easy execution because their physicality didn’t allow us to play so easily as in other games. They play very good on defense. They didn’t allow us to share the ball. But in the end, we were able to find a window.” 

ASVEL did a good job shutting down Real’s prolific offense, which coming into the game had ranked first in the EuroLeague in PIR (108.4 per game), scoring (88.1 points per game) and assists (21.9 per game) while ranking second best in two-point shooting accuracy at 60.4% and fourth best in three-point shooting accuracy at 38.2%.

Real scored 77 points with 19 assists and shot 52.2% on two-pointers and 33.3% from long range for an index rating of 97.

But the biggest stat that carried Real to the win was 16 - as in the first 16 points of the fourth quarter. 

The champs trailed for most of the first three quarters before getting hot in the fourth.

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne v Real Madrid (2023-12-28T19:00:00.000Z)

Josh Nebo dominated the paint and Tamir Blatt filled Wade Baldwin’s shoes, with both Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv players making the difference in their team’s hard-fought 70-78 win at Zalgiris Kaunas. 

Josh Nebo, Tamir Blatt led Maccabi to victory in Kaunas

Josh Nebo dominated the paint and Tamir Blatt filled Wade Baldwin’s shoes, with both Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv players making the difference in their team’s hard-fought 70-78 win at Zalgiris Kaunas. The Maccabi center set a new career high in points by bagging 22 at the Zalgirio Arena, just a few days after setting his previous career high of 18 points in Maccabi’s 92-98 loss at home against Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade.

Nebo shot 8-for-11 (72.7%) from inside the arc and a perfect 6-for-6 from the line. He also recorded 6 rebounds, including 4 offensive boards, 2 assists, 1 block and 4 drawn fouls for a career-high PIR of 27. This means that the 26-year-old has had double-digit PIRs in 13 of his last 14 games.

“I just wanted to make sure that we’ll come out and we’ll put our best effort on it, because it was important to come out as a team and bounce back from last week’s \[defeat to Crvena Zvezda\],” Nebo said after the game.

Josh Nebo scored a career-high 22 in Kaunas

The former Zalgiris big man was happy to return to Kaunas, but he was not the only Maccabi player to step up on the night. Blatt also came to the fore in Baldwin’s absence by pairing a season-high 14 points with 8 assists. Zalgiris took a 33-32 lead into the second half, but Blatt netted a big triple to tie it, 35-35. That three-pointer served as the springboard for Maccabi’s comeback, with the visitors outscoring the Lithuanian champs 16-29 in the third quarter.

“We were smart tonight,” head coach Oded Kattash said after the game.” We used our big guys and this was a great performance by Tamir Blatt, who really helped us to win all kinds of situations. Tamir has given us a lot from the beginning of the season. Tonight, he stepped up and John Dibartolomeo and Rafi Menco also helped from the bench. Josh \[Nebo\] had a great game, but Tamir is confident and knows exactly what he’s doing.”

Despite not reaching its offensive standards, taking into account that they came into this game as the second-best offense in the league with an average of 87.0 points scored per game, Maccabi came out victorious from this clash thanks to their defense.

“We performed our game plan really well,” Roman Sorkin, who scored all his 11 points after the break, noted. “Defense is one of the things we’re trying to improve every week. I think we did a pretty good job with that too.”

Maccabi will return to action with a tough double-round week schedule. Kattash’s men will host AS Monaco on Tuesday, before playing away against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in a game that will take place two days later at the Kalnapilio Arena in Panevezys, Lithuania, instead of Istanbul as originally scheduled.

The center remained red hot and the playmaker had his best game of the season to pace the Israeli champs. 

Zalgiris Kaunas v Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv (2023-12-28T18:00:00.000Z)

Olimpia Milano (6-10) comes up against Saski Baskonia (9-7) in Round 17 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season.

Milan blasts Baskonia 76-67

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EuroLeague Live Blog: EA7 Emporio Armani Milan vs. Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Nicolo Melli and Johannes Voigtmann combined for 40 points to pace the short-handed winners. 

FC Bayern Basketball improved to 6-2 at BMW Park and 8-9 overall by beating Valencia Basket 85-84 in Round 17 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season.

FC Bayern Basketball hangs on to defeat Valencia Basket, 85-84

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Carsen Edwards of FC Bayern Munich is defended by Josep Puerto of Valencia Basket in Round 17 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season.

The visitors had a slim chance to win the game late on, but Pablo Laso and his charges breathed a sigh of relief as Xabi Lopez-Arostegui's half-court heave was off the mark.

Bayern hangs on to defeat Valencia, 85-84

FC Bayern Munich v Valencia Basket (2023-12-28T19:30:00.000Z)

Panathinaikos B.C. was too strong for KK Crvena zvezda and won 82-65 in Round 17 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season.

Greens overpower Crvena Zvezda 82-65

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EuroLeague Live Blog: Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens vs. Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade.

Dinos Mitoglou led a balanced Panathinaikos effort with 15 points and the Greens won their fourth straight game. 

Defending champ Real Madrid Baloncesto held on to beat LDLC ASVEL 76-77 in Round 17 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season.

Live Blog: Real Madrid escapes ASVEL with 76-77 triumph

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EuroLeague Live Blog: LDLC ASVEL vs. Real Madrid Baloncesto.

Los Blancos started the fourth quarter with 16 unanswered points and narrowly held on at the end. 