Day 3 TopSixteen Eurocup: Alba Berlin - Cedevita Zagreb

* Alba started the game with Siva as their only guard. The rest of their back court was Milosavljevic and Giffey. It was an attempt from coach Caki to put on an athletic back line that would deal with Cedevita´s athletic guards James and Boatright. Six minutes into the game, as Cedevita scored 19 points, Caki admited a failure and sent a second guard to the court.

* Cedevita started the game on 5th gang, and gradually increased the pace. Their turbo guards run the court in less than 5 seconds and end it with a basket.

* Alba also scores much better when they are playing transition. Their half court offence is not a of top Eurocup level. Therefore, Alba is dependent on their defence: without stops, there is no possibility for fast breaks. In the second quarter Alba showed some aggressiveness and pressure on the ball. It slowed down Cedevita´s frantic pace, and caused the croatians to turn the ball over 13 times in the first half. That also relieved Alba´s offence. And just as Sairopoulos did last week in the Euroleague, Caki did tonight: he put his SF (Milosavljevic/Vargas) on the opponents short guard (Boatright) in order to neutralize him. That was Alba´s main key to a successful night.

* James and Boatright might be able to take any of Alba´s guards to the rim any time they want, but their athletic superiority was also a disadvantage. They were playing solo instead of passing the ball around. Both of them passed 1 assist together out of Cedevita´s 14.

* And that is a pity, since Zagreb has a player like Bilan in the paint, who was begging to get the ball. Not many of Alba´s players could have be able stop him.

* Alba was best when they played with 2 big men. Finally, Gaffney played as a PF, as he should. It opens up Alba´s offence (ans also allows Gaffney to help more in the defence), since the defence needs to decide: either they sagg and aviod Kikanovic to post up (and then leave the shooters free), or to go out to the shooters and leave the paint open. With good sharing of the ball – 30 assists – Alba took advantage of Cedevita´s defensive dilemma, on their way to score 50% from the 3 points range. Cedevita had just 2 turnovers in the second half, but Alba did not need to run anymore: their half court offence was functioning. For the first time this Eurocup season, they looked like a team: passing the ball around and getting got looks at the basket.

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