Two teams on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoff race, collide in a high-stakes game in the Serbian capital.
Roller coaster seasons intersect for Partizan, Efes
Članak
5 Min čitanja
After entering this season with high hopes, many things have not gone as planned for Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade (12-14) and Anadolu Efes Istanbul (11-15). Tonight, after three weeks without EuroLeague action, these two teams collide in a massive game for both sides.
One team, Partizan, hopes to put an end to its struggles, while Efes hopes to keep rising after winning just nine of the first 24 games and the coaching change that ensued.
Their Round 10 game in late November ended with Efes pulling out a 100-94 win, but other than the point difference, very little from that game is of great relevance on Thursday night. That's in large part because of the roller coaster ride both teams have been on, especially since that game.
It is hard to find a team that has had it worse than Efes, which saw four of its top eight performers each miss at least nine games due to injury, and that's not counting Rodrigue Beaubois missing four games as well. Poor results led to the dismissal of head coach Erdem Can, who was replaced by the team's long-time assistant Tomislav Mijatovic ahead of Round 25. It took Efes's struggling offense just one half of basketball to re-discover its groove under Mijatovic.
In his coaching debut, Efes scored 34 points in the first half against EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, which led to Mijatovic's simple message: "Offensively, we need to relax a little more", Mijatovic said at halftime of that game. "The shots will come."
The team listened. They relaxed. And the shots have come, making things click once again.
Since that halftime moment, Efes has scored 27 or more points in four of the six EuroLeague quarters it has played. Over that time the team is averaging 25.0 points per quarter, which would prorate to 100.0 per game. The team has also knocked down a total of 20 three-pointers over those six quarters, which would come out to 13.3 per game.
Yes, it is a small sample, but a telling one, especially with Efes's main engine Shane Larkin shining with 20.5 points on 50.0% three-point shooting with 6.0 assists in two games under Mijatovic.
But for Coach Mijatovic's squad, which won their first six games in all competitions under his guidance before losing in the Turkish Cup final against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, the challenge gets a bit different.
For one, Efes has not done well on the road this season, so much so that only one EuroLeague team has a worse road record than Efes's 2-11.
Also, Efes arrives at a city where, despite all of its dominance and title-winning in recent years, it has not played well as a visitor. Efes might have won its 2022 EuroLeague crown at Stark Arena, making it forever a memorable place for the club, but it has lost four straight against either Partizan or Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet in Belgrade, registering its last win in November 2020, and allowing 91.5 points in four losses since then.
The other challenge for Efes is that visiting Partizan is never an ordinary game. And in addition to it being an environment in which Partizan thrives, it is also a place where no lead is safe. Partizan has already pulled out six comebacks on its home floor after trailing by double figures.
Partizan erased a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit against Zvezda, and then a 14-point third-quarter deficit against Fenerbahce. Partizan rallied from 10 down with 4 minutes to go to edge Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens and also overcame Milan after trailing by 15 in the third quarter. Partizan pulled out its largest-ever comeback, beating Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv despite trailing by 24 points in the second quarter, and also was down by 11 early on against Zalgiris Kaunas.
Those were the in-game roller coasters that Partizan has been involved in. The other part is that a win over Zalgiris in Round 23 was Partizan's last, and the team that once held a 9-6 record enters this game on a three-game losing streak and having lost eight of its last 11 games.
The struggles have come, somewhat unexpectedly on offense as only three teams are average fewer than Partizan's 78.2 points over the last 11 games. Partizan averaged 86.5 points in the first 15 rounds.
It puts Partizan in a position with little room for error, especially at home where it still gets to play five times this season. And even though the remaining schedule has Partizan still holding its post-season destiny in its own hands, Coach Zeljko Obradovic's men will be playing with their backs against the wall for the rest of the season.
That will make Efes's job even tougher, but not that Larkin, Will Clyburn, Tibor Pleiss, Beaubois and the rest of the squad are not up to the task. But, the same way, Kevin Punter, Zach LeDay & co. will not want to disappoint their army of fans again.
It is a night and a game that can easily turn things around for the winning side, but it just remains to be seen whether it will be Partizan or Efes on Thursday night that will improve its position ahead of the sprint to the finish line.