Fast Forward

When prepering his team for a game, any coach has to deal with a certain dilemma: does he changes his style of play according to the rival, or does he stick with the old good familiar style his team is playing? Partizan Belgrad is a very young team, and young teams tend to run. They sarted the game yesterday with a fast game. They also executed their fast game pretty well. The only problem was, Alba played even faster. Much faster.

Alba scored 57 and 54 points in the first and the second half, respectively. Sure, Partizan´s defence is still need to be improved. But the main reason for Alba´s show - and what a show it was! - is their crazy fast game. Alba´s first Eurocup game for this season was like a race between a nice Volkswagen Polo and a Formula 1. From the first secind there was no doubt who is going to win this race.

It all start with defence. If I may continue my racing car allegory, Alba is a driver who only knows two modes - driving in 5th gear, and driving even faster. Their intense defence, which puts a lot of pressure on the ball, leads to deflections and steals (nice quick hands, Sikma and Butterfield). And that leads to easy points on the fast break or in transition.

Since Radosevich was missing last night (his wife is giving a birth), Aito was forced to play for long minutes small ball. And guess what - playing without center made Alba even faster than they usually are. Berlin´s best minutes were with Sikma as a 5. Sure, it cost Alba with some rebounds and easy points from Partizan in the paint, but in the bottom line Albas small ball devestated Belgard. Sometimes you discover great things by chance. It will be a challange to Aito to keep on playing small ball also on days when he has his two centers available.

And last thing about Luke Sikma - even though birthday boy Butterfield was the leading scorer and the MVP, there is no doubt the Sikma is Alba´s most important man on the court. He is bringing the entire package - scoring, passing, great defence, rebounding and intellegence. A Euroleague level player.

#Eurocup #AlbaBerlin #PartizanBelgrad