EuroLeague's beat: historically bad night for Monaco and horrible Zalgiris draught / News - Basketnews.com

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BasketNews continues the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague beat edition. Here, you'll be able to find all the info you need about what happened in the latest EuroLeague round.

Third division basketball from Efes, first home defeat for Olympiacos Piraeus, honorary guests in Palau Blaugrana, a night to forget for AS Monaco, Mike James, and Dwayne Bacon, a night to remember for Alexey Shved and Zalgiris Kaunas away games curse – all of that and more in EuroLeague's Round 23 beat.

EuroLeague's beat Round 23

ALEX THE GREAT. Zenit's Alex Poythress was in beast mode against Anadolu Efes' bigs, smashing two career-highs in points and PIR. The former Kentucky standout was unstoppable, leading the Russians to their 13th win.

EFES IN THE THIRD DIVISION. "From 25 shots, we made only four 3-pointers. These are unacceptable shots. Unacceptable field goals. Players belong to third-division basketball level with these shots," Anadolu Efes coach Ergin Ataman said on EuroLeague TV.

Efes tied their worst offensive performance this season (67 points). Coincidence or not, they also scored 67 in another loss on Russian ground, to UNICS Kazan.

XAVI EXTENDS WINNING STREAK. Zenit are still to be beaten by Efes while Xavi Pascual has been leading the Russians. The Catalan coach has won 12 out of 13 total battles against his Turkish counterpart, which is arguably incredible.

1,2,3... NEVERMIND. Efes captain Bryant Dunston tried to gather all of his teammates for the customary team-bonding ritual after every game. No one responded, no one joined. They all headed straight to the locker room.

FIRST BLOOD. Olympiacos were unbeaten this season at the Peace and Friendship Stadium, having won all nine of their EuroLeague games.

That was until Crveza Zvezda paid them a visit, forcing the Reds to their third straight loss. It was a feat accentuated by the fact that it was just Zvezda's first success in Piraeus after 4 losses in as many contests.

EMPTY GYM. Not only (almost) empty, but also exceptionally cold.

Those adjectives best describe what it felt like being at the Peace and Friendship Stadium last Thursday night. The bad weather conditions in the Greek capital and the heaviest snowfall in recent years added to the limited capacity under which Greek arenas must operate.

Olympiacos's coach Giorgos Bartzokas had something to comment: "It's not a complaint because I totally respect the government's decision, but the circumstances are not the same for everyone.

We played Fenerbahce and Maccabi in a full gym, and we came here to play in an empty gym. There are 12.000 fans everywhere we go," the Greek coach said post-game.

LEGENDS GO TO PALAU. Former FC Barcelona football coach Pep Guardiola ASVEL Villeurbanne's president Tony Parker were among the high-profile guests in the Barcelona-ASVEL game.

Before tip-off, Parker had a moment with former Barcelona shooting guard and EuroLeague legend Juan Carlos Navarro. The two had faced each other several times, mostly whenever the Spanish and the French national team collided.

After the game, Jasikevicius met Pep Guardiola and later revealed some details about their chat.

"We talked about golf. Hopefully, we can play together soon. I have been following his journey these years, I have read his book… We must be proud of him," the Lithuanian coach said.

LAPRO IS HERE FOR THE RESCUE. Jasikevicius saw point guards Nick Calathes and Nico Laprovittola take care of business in the third quarter. Barcelona's head coach praised the Greek's defense and Laprovittola's offensive flow, which resulted in him scoring 12 of his 20 points in that period.

"Calathes did a great job against Okobo. He stopped him. When we lost some fluency, Laprovittola rescued us with almost 12 points in a row," Saras analyzed.

GOOD NEWS FOR EVERYONE. ASVEL had reasons to smile, too. Calathes may have stopped Okobo, but the Frenchman still dropped 17 points on 6/13 from the field, plus 8 assists for only one turnover.

Okobo's last 17-point game was against Barcelona in Round 11, on November 19. He hasn't surpassed that number ever since.

Kostas Antetokounmpo was assigned a DNP in ASVEL's defeat by Bayern but logged his third-best scoring performance this season with 9 points.

Overall, the French champs have only won two of their last ten games. Their 9-13 track leaves little if any room for optimism, especially if they're going to leave Istanbul empty-handed next week.

But at least, some things are still working - if that can provide any comfort.

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER. Alexey Shved had his best-ever game with a CSKA Moscow jersey.

Shved accumulated a season-high 27 points (3/4 2PT, 6/10 3PT, 3/4 FT), 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 turnover, and 23 PIR in a win over UNICS Kazan.

He also became the oldest Russian player to score 25 or more points in the EuroLeague.

WELCOME BACK. Will Clyburn made his return after a one-month-long break and accumulated 16 points (1/4 2PT, 2/6 3PT, 8/8 FT), 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 turnover, 6 drawn fouls, and 20 PIR.

RUINED BIRTHDAY. John Brown III celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday, but it was bittersweet because of the loss and poor personal performance.

Brown finished the game with 1 point (0/3 2PT, 1/2 FT), 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 turnover, and 0 PIR.

50. That's how many minutes took for Real Madrid to beat AS Monaco. The Spanish powerhouse won double-overtime thriller 90-84.

ICE COLD. Prepare for some horrible numbers. Mike James went 3/19 from the field (2/12 2PT, 1/7 3PT) against Real. It was the second-worst shooting night in the history of the modern EuroLeague.

Only Gordan Giricek in the 2000-01 season performed worse when he made 2 shots out of 19 (10.53%).

James also holds the fourth-worst performance, going 4/20 from the field in the 2018-19 season.

ICE COLD II. Okay, you've seen James' numbers. Do you think it cannot be worse? Well, it can.

Dwayne Bacon went 6/20 from the field, so the Bacon-James combo made only 9 shots out of 39 attempts (23.1%). It's the worst two-player performance in the history of the EuroLeague.

If we add Donatas Motiejunas, who made 4 shots out of 14, we would have the second-worst trio performance in EuroLeague history. James-Bacon-Motiejunas trio went 13/53 from the field.

Only Opel Skyliners' Marcus Goree (6/20), Chad Austin (3/17), and Alexander Lokhmanchu (3/17) trio performed worse, missing 42 field goals in one game in the 2001-02 season.

SH*T. Mike James reacted to his and Bacon's performance by being brutally honest.

"And still coulda won smh…. We played like sh*t. Can't be that bad again," tweeted Monaco's star after the game.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE. Despite his poor shooting night, Donatas Motiejunas finished the game with a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds.

For the Lithuanian, it was the first EuroLeague double-double since December 2011.

REBOUND. Real and Monaco grabbed a total of 97 rebounds, which is the second-highest number in EuroLeague history.

FINALLY. Panathinaikos OPAP Athens finally secured their first win in 2022 in the EuroLeague. Dimitris Priftis team beat Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 75-63 and snapped their five-game losing streak.

DEBUT. Stefan Jovic made his debut for PAO, accumulating 6 points (0/1 2PT, 2/2 3PT), 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, and 10 PIR in 19 minutes of playing time.

MACHINE. Against Zalgiris Kaunas, Kyle Hines scored 6 points. Despite that, he finished the game with a PIR of 22.

AX Armani Exchange forward accumulated 6 points (3/3 2PT), 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, and 4 drawn fouls.

DRAUGHT. Zalgiris' curse in away games continues. The last time the Lithuanian powerhouse won an away game in the EuroLeague was back on January 27, 2021, when Zalgiris beat Valencia Basket.

LITTLE QUALITY. Ettore Messina accurately described his team's victory after the game.

"It's a win made of effort and very little quality," Messina said. "Effort at this level is not enough. Since we have quality, we have to use it. And to use it, you have to put your focus, your brain your attention to details that tonight was basically below the level needed. We were fortunate to escape with a win because we worked very hard. Effort-wise, I can never complain about my players."

WILLKOMMEN ZURÜCK. Welcome back, FC Bayern Munich. After the win against ALBA Berlin, the Bavarian team is back in the Top8 in the EuroLeague standings.

SINGLE-HANDEDLY. Vladimir Lucic took all matters into his own hands. The Serbian forward finished the game with 19 points (5/7 2PT, 2/5 3PT, 3/5 FT), 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 8 drawn fouls, and 21 PIR.

No other Bayern player scored more than 9 points.

TOP Plays of Round 23

Records of Round 23

PIR Youssoupha Fall

Youssoupha Fall (30)

Points Alexey Shved

Alexey Shved (27)

Rebounds Vincent Poirier

Vincent Poirier (14)

Assists Lorenzo Brown

Lorenzo Brown, Thomas Heurtel (9 each)

Steals Nick Weiler-Babb

Nick Weiler-Babb (6)

Blocks Walter Tavares

Walter Tavares (4)

3-pointers made Alexey Shved Alexey Shved (6)

Results of Round 23

Zenit Saint Petersburg Anadolu Efes Istanbul 76-67 stat » Olympiakos Piraeus Crvena Zvezda Belgrade 72-76 stat » FC Barcelona LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 84-71 stat » UNIKS Kazan CSKA Moscow 75-86 stat » Monaco Basket Real Madrid 84-90 stat » Panathinaikos Athens Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 75-63 stat » AX Armani Exchange Milan Zalgiris Kaunas 65-58 stat » FC Bayern Munich ALBA Berlin 62-56 stat » Support BasketNews so we could make even better content.