Crushed dreams: How did Partizan let it slip in the clutch? / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: K. Kavolėlis Credit K. Kavolėlis

7DAYS EuroCup is a tournament of upsets. Last season, everybody expected to see Virtus Bologna win the competition, but they did not even make it to the final.

Player of the Game EFF 35 Andrew Andrews Points 24 Accuracy 7-10 Rebounds 8 Assists 10

In 2017, few predicted that a shorthanded Unicaja Malaga would come over the heavy favorites Valencia after they lost the first game. But they did.

In 2009, Sergio Scariolo led Khimki was the big spender of the competition, but they were shocked by Rimas Kurtinaitis' Rytas. The list goes on and on, the surprises are by no means rare and if that reality happened to fly off our minds momentarily, yesterday was a good reminder.

The Stark Arena was fully packed with a jubilant crowd, longing for the glorious days of Partizan, dreaming of winning trophies again, getting back to the European elite. They had every reason to do so. They had Zeljko Obradovic.

And after Balsa Koprivica dunked the very first ball of the game following the opening jump-ball, the Serbian fans probably saw it as a good omen.

Once again, the Basketball gods said: "Not so fast!"

Frutti Extra Bursaspor: The Most Efficient Offense of EuroCup

Playing Frutti Extra Bursaspor is no joke nowadays, and every team has had their share lately. They started the season poorly with only 3 wins out of 8 games in both BSL (Turkish League) and EuroCup. Soon after, they parted ways with Dragon Milosavljelvic and, starting with the new year, released their leader scorer Allerik Freeman to CSKA.

How to fill the gap for that kind of a scoring ace who gets 20+ points, 3+ assists on a regular basis, and also operates as the primary ball handler? Tough job.

But Alimpijevic was a man with a plan. It is not without a reason that Frutti Extra Bursaspor sits at the top of the most efficient offense in the competition with 1.02 points per possession. They are 3rd best 3-point shooting team with 39.1% and the fifth-best in the FG with 48%.

3-pointers this season

39%9,8Points made:9,8Accuracy:39,2%Place in standings:6Record max:14Record min:5Most made 3FGs:Derek NeedhamTeamEuroCupStatisticsSchedule

He quickly re-organized the team wisely, dividing the scoring responsibilities in an equal way. It should also be mentioned that they also lost so many close games against remarkably good teams like Buducnost, Valencia, and Virtus Bologna. This was a team who won their last 4 out of 5 games in the EuroCup.

Despite the strong finish, everybody was a little bit discouraged when they saw the name of Partizan NIS Belgrade for the Last 16 playoff game on the Turkish side. It is not hard to understand why.

"We got the toughest possible rival for the Last 16 matchups, but instead of being sorry and complaining, we should be happy for this historic season for the club where we found ourselves in the EuroCup playoffs," Alimpijevic commented before the game.

Born and raised in Belgrade, Alimpijevic got his taste of winning the eternal Serbian derby while coaching Crvena Zvezda in 2017-18. 6 players scored double digits.

"We should be happy because we have the opportunity to play against the greatest coach in the history of Europe," he added.

Indeed, coach. Well said.

Been there done that, he had a lot to prove against a coaching idol: Zeljko Obradovic, the legend himself.

Yesterday, Frutti Extra Bursaspor played with an 8-player rotation, and 5 of them scored double digits. Alimpijevic was tested and implemented his brilliant plan once again.

Partizan: Dreams Deferred

Needless to say, Partizan is a club with a lot of ambition. Not only did they bring Obradovic back, but the roster flourished with pure talent and, partially, experience as well.

Zach LeDay, Kevin Punter, Alen Smailagic, Matthias Lessort, Yam Madar, Tristan Vukcevic, Aleksa Avramovic, Balsa Koprivica is a no-joke player group. The type that can make every coach jealous.

But Obradovic knows better than everyone that the games are not won with the names on the paper but on the court.

And he was well aware of the dangers of getting on the road with such a young, albeit talented roster, chasing big ambitions. He predicted that tables could turn abruptly in such single-game elimination format competitions.

He hinted about the potential dangers when they lost to Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade in the Cup final about the team's young core.

"We have only 3 players remaining from last year's roster. We are the youngest roster playing in Europe. The defeat in this final will help them to be players. We know the reasons for the loss, and we will address them in the upcoming games."

To be honest, that Cup final was not the only game in which Partizan showed its deficiencies as a team. Lietkabelis Panevezys defeated them with a brilliant game, as well as Turk Telekom did the same in Ankara.

Sometimes, the big crowds just inadvertently backfire, especially if the roster is filled with many young players and the club is a cultural giant, dreaming of rising out of its own ashes.

Unlike Frutti Extra Bursaspor, who lowers the number of possessions, Partizan likes to play run and gun at times, being the 5th high tempo team in the EuroCup competition.

This was way too high for Zeljko's standards, and it seemed like Partizan was getting ahead of themselves at times by their own place.

"Finding the right words is not easy right now," Alimpijevic said after the game. "We saw that the pressure created by the 20 000 people in the hall was on them more than on us. We saw their hands shaking. Actually, we used this trump card. We prepared for them as they prepared for us."

But how did it happen in the first place?

The Unravelling: How did Partizan choke in a moment of glory?

In these types of games where one side is the heavy favorite against the other, it is best to make a statement starting with the very first seconds of the game.

To be brutally honest, Partizan never found that opening against their opponent and let the game go in balance during the first half. That is an invaluable confidence booster for Frutti Extra Bursaspor. They got convinced that it was not entirely impossible to pull a win out of Belgrade.

In these types of situations, the big home crowds actually become a pressurizing factor. And in the second half, it became worse.

Partizan panicked and started to miss shot after shot while Bursaspor was punishing the defensive cracks.

The home side found themselves 9 points down in the 3rd quarter all of a sudden, which opened breathing space for Bursaspor, an important wildcard that was spared for the toughest moments in the 4th quarter.

Beginning of the 4th, Partizan finally reacted to close the gap. To matter the matters even better for the home side, Bursaspor’s leading rim-protector Kevarrius Hayes was out with 5 fouls with more than 6 minutes remaining.

Bursaspor showed strong resilience to hold on, but their case was beginning to get darker and darker.

Lessort stole the ball for a dunk to make it a five-point lead for Partizan with the 1:30 minutes remaining. Despite a bumpy ride, the home side managed to carry that lead until the last 20 seconds.

Then the unthinkable happened.

Andrew Andrews managed to devise a quick lay-up to keep Bursaspor in the mix. Yam Madar drew the foul after the inbound, and he shot both of the free throws while Derek Needham was protesting the decision.

But somehow, Partizan could not finish this game. In a moment of a defensive blackout, Bursaspor quickly got a relatively easy dunk again with Onuralp Bitim. With 10 seconds remaining, Partizan's lead was 3.

"I think we had a chance to finish easily, but we didn't," admitted Obradovic. "I take responsibility for everything that happened during the game. It's logical that it is so: I have experience; therefore, I take all the accountability."

Those were the moments that required a good experience. Yam Madar overused his shoulder to open up space during the inbound. It was an offensive foul. Obradovic was desperately calming his young pupil down.

While Partizan became more and more clumsy and lamented, Bitim became more restless with energetic penetrations towards the rim, punishing switches, using his gravity to feed his open teammates, and bringing some verticality with those shiny alley-oops.

Then the game-saving inbound play came. Andrew Andrews was the leading scorer of Bursa and the first guy to look at the toughest situations like this.

He played a magnificent game with 24 points and 10 assists, making him absolutely dangerous. Bait!

Alimpijevic's decoy was welcomed by the Partizan defenders, who simply forgot how effective John Holland could be as a clutch shooter.

The guy himself is by no means an alien to these situations. The Puerto-Rican "ice-in-veins" shooter joined the Frutti Extra Bursaspor late in the season but was surely up for the task of stunning the Goliath.

Onuralp Bitim put the ball in, and here comes the man with the game-saving 3-pointer. SWISH!

Last year, he was breaking the hearts of Virtus Bologna fans. This year, it was Partizan's turn. We are going to overtime.

Even Obradovic was having a tough time analyzing these moments.

"Whatever it was, it ended badly for us. I could analyze, but I wouldn't go into details. We spent a year on nothing. I came here with the greatest ambitions. We knew it was one game, we tried to prepare in the best way," he said after the game.

The overtime was like an endless nightmare for Partizan fans, who were sort of stunned and down on the morale level with all the stuff they witnessed. Partizan were heading to the quarterfinal just seconds ago.

Then it was a horror show with Partizan's field goals and Bitim's dagger dunk to close the night.

The question is: What now?

"I came here for three years. Only if the club is dissatisfied with my work if there is someone better - no problem (to leave)," Obradovic revealed after the game. "It's hard, but this is life. I will analyze everything, but we have no choice other than to work and stick together. If I am the issue, there are no problems (to leave)."

It is highly doubtful that Partizan would give up on a legend like Obradovic so fast. This reunion came after all those long years, and it does not deserve to end in less than a year.

Besides, Partizan could still win the ABA League as well as make their way to EuroLeague via wildcard. There is no need to overcomplicate the matter, as it has been repeatedly revealed that EuroCup is slippery ground. The important thing is to take the required lessons.

As for Frutti Extra Bursaspor, the season's aims are overachieved. But that does not mean that Alimpijevic, with his players and all the staff's thirst for glory, is quenched.

Just the contrary. They got even more ambitious. The next opponent is Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana, and while Alimpijevic calls to take one step at a time, the smile on his face after the game and those joyful moments in the locker room of Bursaspor showed the club that anything is possible from now on.

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