Day 1 Euroleague

Galatasary - CSKA Moscow

* The new Euroleague rules regarding flopping ain't making any sense. Today it was Justin Dentmon, the first victim of this season, who was rejected due to two technical fouls. Probably many more to come in the following weeks. And the refs are not to be blamed for: it is the rule which is horribly wrong. Sometimes the best thing to do against flopping is just to ignore them. The defender is already lying on the floor, the offence has one man advantage. No need to stop the game.

* Russ Smith is definatey more talented the Sinan Güler. But talent is not all. Smith attempted 7 field goals in 6 minutes during the first half. Way too much. So in the offensive end he is not passing, and on the defensive end he is doing the James Harden. CSKA players still don´t believe how easy it is getting to the rim. Smith´s teammates don´t even tend to help him in defence. Just the first game of the Euroleague season, and it already seems that Galatasaray players can´t stand Smith´s egoistic attitude. Güler, on the other hand, is doing solid defence, stealing balls and doing that thing Smith doesn´t. How is it called again? Oh, yeah, passing the damn ball around (And feeding Tyus). With him on the PG poisition Gala played much better.

* It is not just Russ Smith. Galatasaray´s man on man defence is a shame. CSKA´s pick´n´rolls usually end up with a player penetratin the paint easily. Towards the end of the first half Ataman tried zone defence. It is supposed to be a crazy idea against CSKA, who had reat 3-pt shooters. But it surprisinlgy it worked well. Ataman never tried it again.

* Gala started the 4th quarter with Smith as a playmaker. It was a very bad decision.

* With 109 points, CSKA with broke their Euroleague record for scoring in a single game. And that is on their first game of the season. Itoudis´tasks this year will be more phsychology related than tactical: How to keep the team in focus during the lon season ahead of them.

Crvena Zvezda - Darussafaka

* Crevna Zvezda had more hustle in the first half. Darussakafa looked a bit like James Anderson: very talented, bit somewhat apathetic.

* Blatt could not find a solution for the serbian pick´n´roll. It ended to often with a miss match, or with easy two. Those miss matches also allowed the Red Star to grab plenty of offensive rebounds. In addition, trapping the serbian big men didn´t work well. Crvena Zvezda managed to move the ball and find the free man beyond the arch.

* In the last quarter, despite Crvena Zvezda´s domination in rebounds, Blatt tried hos favorite weapons: a small ball formation with Haranody as a center (and with three more forwards and a guard); And a match-up zone defence.

* Eventually, Darussafaka won thanks to simple moves. The Forwards line up of the last minutes opened up the paint (As Radonjic also benched his Center in reaction to Blatt). Clyburn used his size and athleticism to take every ball the the rim. Nobody from the Red Star was able to stop him.