Between optimism and pessimism

A pessimist is an optimist with experience, used to say my university professor. Tonight was Alba´s big test against a top Euroleague team. With all the respect to other rivals from Group C - Kuban is the only title contender. A win against the Obradovics would have signaled that Alba may go all the way in the Eurocup this year. So the Germans, after series of convincing victories, came optimistic to the match, only to defeat against the Russians in Berlin. Yes, history repeats itself.

Not that Alba doesn´t have reasons to remain optimistic after the match: they were an equal rival to Kuban (who stand on 7-0 at the moment and look like a top favorite to win the competition); They were missing Giffey (and Siva in the money time); and they showed tons of character in the last quarter. Nevertheless, Alba should feel dissapointed. The pessimists would say that the German defence does not have what it takes to go all the way.

Tonight, again, Alba revealed some defensive weaknesses when dealing with the pick´n´roll. Or when trying to stop Kuban guards from penetrating to the paint. Or when showing full court pressure with traps, which led Kuban to lose no balls at all. In order to cover those weaknesses, Alba saggs defensively. It leaves the other players to throw free threes. After Kuban tested the rims in the Mercedes Benz Arena and scored miserable 1/8 in the first quarter, things went smoother. In the remaining 30 minutes Kuban scored 14/21 from the three! Mostly since they realized which players should take the shots: less from Ragland and Lacey (1/9 combined), more from Antipov and Broekhoff (10/14 combined).

It was also not the best game Aito managed. In the end of the third quarter he left on the court for too long a team made of Radosavljevic, Schneider, Vargas, Peno and Saibou. Sure, Aito has has his own reasons, but lets not forget the main element in basketball - putting that round thing into the other round thing. None of those players can create points. This unique line up was able to make just one field goal, when Radoslavljevic deflected the ball 20 centimeter away from the rim. Kuban took advantage and made it a double digit lead, which was too big for Alba to close.

In the last quarter, only when running out of options, the Germans tried the thing that worked for them very well this season - small ball. Aito does not this weapon very often. Is it conservatism? Perhaps. It worked well also against the russians tonight. Alas, Luke Sikma, who played in this formation as a center, had a terrible night, which undermined that line up where he plays center. And when Alba´s most important player finished 24 minutes without a successful field goal, the albatrosses cannot win.

#Eurocup #AlbaBerlin #LokomotivKuban