There were four games going on last night between NBA and European teams and I must say it was somewhat surprising what happened. The bad news first: Panathinaikos lost by 37! points against Luis Scola (17 points in 25 minutes) and his new team the Houston Rockets.
Shooting 37% out of the field against 52% and 27 turnovers was probably not what Mr. Obradovic wanted to see. Also Sarunas Jasikevicius 6 points and 1 assist were not what PAO Fans probably had expected. I guess they have some work to do until Saturday when they will face the NBA Champion – but then this is preseason.
Another Euroleague team with Maccabi Tel Aviv lost to the New York Knicks by 27! points. Now what is the good thing from this game? Marcus Fizer with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Why do I point that out? Because Marcus is on my Euroelague fantasy team!
7 Knicks players managed to score in double figures with just 11 turnovers during the whole game. I guess it looks all good in New York if you don’t think about Isiah’s problems right now.
MMT Estudiantes also lost by 25 points against the Grizzlies in Calderon’s home coming to Madrid which really looked like an exhibition game to m. No effort at all from Estudiantes to play good basketball but then maybe this is what we can expect from a Euro Cup team against a NBA team.
Last game of the night was in the same gym (Madrid) when the Raptors lost to Real Madrid by 1 point where the American players Louis Bullock and Charles Smith combined for 45 points. It was a game between two pretty even teams while the rebounding situation should concern the Raptors – It was mentioned during the first games in Rome by some people and it gets more and more obvious that the Raptors need to get stronger under the basket – considering that Chris Bosh did not play for the Raptors while Reyes was out for Real Madrid.
Overall the European teams have to get ready soon. With the Euroleague start just 10 days away there is still a lot of work to do for most of the teams we saw against NBA teams.
