The first double-game week brought a lot of pressure on coaches, players, and entire organizations. If you got off to a slow start through the first two weeks, you needed to bounce back here. Some teams did, others didn't. That's why two coaches got fired by the end of the week, and why two teams have established themselves as EuroLeague's best so far.
After each week of EuroLeague action, we'll bring you the winners and losers of the week (here's last week). Here's a breakdown of Rounds 3 and 4 of EuroLeague action.
EuroLeague winners: Can anyone stop Real Madrid?
There have been some truly great EuroLeague teams in the competition's history. Ettore Messina's Bologna squad with Marko Jaric, Manu Ginobili, and other greats. The back-to-back Maccabi Tel Aviv squad with Sarunas Jasikevicius and Anthony Parker. Barcelona's 2010 championship-winning squad with Ricky Rubio, and so many teams who didn't win championships like the Baskonia (then Tau Ceramica) side with Luis Scola, Jose Calderon, Tiago Splitter, and other future pros.
This season's Real Madrid team is an incredible squad. They have the best center in Europe in Edy Tavares and arguably the best point guard in Facundo Campazzo. They essentially have two elite players at every position. In some positions, they have three elite players. They have versatile personnel that allow them to play small, play big, play fast, space the floor, play physical, etc.
They are a very deserved 4-0, second only to rivals Barcelona who are ahead on point difference. They have the number one offense in the league, scoring 90.75 points per game. With all the talent they have, that's no surprise.
In their Round 4 match-up with Nikola Mirotic's Olimpia Milano the Italian club played a perfect first-half. They used their physicality to their advantage, were aggressive on the backboards, and attacked the paint. Their physicality on defense gave Real issues, particularly Dzanan Musa who was the team's leading scorer last season.
It didn't matter. At halftime, the score was tied 42-42 thanks to a Sergio Llull buzzer-beater. It was Llull's third three-pointer of the game and the Madrid legend happily stepped up to fill in for Musa's struggles. Additionally, Campazzo and Sergio Rodriguez helped Los Blancos pull away in the third quarter by running pick-and-roll with Tavares and Vincent Poirier. Both players caught lobs and scored buckets that made Milano's defense look helpless.
They held Mirotic to just 13 points on the other end and flexed their depth — bringing Mario Hezonja, Llull, Rodriguez, Poirier, and Rudy Fernandez off the bench — as well as their versatility. At the end of the second quarter, Coach Messina called a timeout to draw up a play for Milano on one of their final possessions. Head coach Chus Mateo responded with a defense-focused lineup of Llull, Gabriel Deck, Hezonja, Guerschon Yabusele, and Eli N'Diaye. N'Diyae, the young center, faced guarded point guard Kevin Pangos, denying him the ball at full-court to mess up Milano's rhythm on this final possession.
Los Blancos are the clear favorites for the EuroLeague title at this stage, and it will stay that way as long as they stay healthy. Their squad is aging, which is their only kryptonite. They look like superheroes right now, though, with only Barcelona playing close to a similar level.
EuroLeague winners: Monaco bounced back accordingly from their 0-2 start
There was a healthy amount of pressure on AS Monaco Basket heading into this double-game week. They started the season 0-2 with a road loss to Valencia and then a shock home blowout loss to Bologna. Mike James and Elie Okobo didn't seem to be playing with the same verve as last season and it seemed like they were getting nothing from their rotation on the wings.
They started the double game week on the road, against Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade, one of the most unforgiving environments in sports. Zvezda lost their Round 2 match to Zalgiris Kaunas and was hungry to impress in front of their ravenous fans once again. It was going to take a combination of guts, dawg, and luck for Monaco to head out of Serbia with a victory, and through two games they had not shown a lot of any of those three.
Through the first quarter of this one, things didn't look good. Monaco trailed 23-14 and they easily could've been down more. Red Star was getting a lot of good looks. Milos Teodosic was getting into the paint, whipping the ball out, and the ball moved brilliantly around the perimeter as Red Star found the open player on what felt like every possession.
On the other end, Monaco was sloppy. They were turning the ball over and could not exploit Teodosic who Red Star hid on Jaron Blossomgame. Shabazz Napier was forcing turnovers with active hands, the Serbian club was getting out in transition, and Monaco looked rattled and uncomfortable.
But they recovered. James had a great game — and is also apparently learning to play the piano — and his offense bailed Monaco out a few times, but he was also aided by his teammates. John Brown knocked down a bevy of long twos that made Red Star pay for keeping him open. Alpha Diallo and Donta Hall came off the bench and mucked the game up. They were physical and refused to back down no matter how loud the home crowd got.
Kemba Walker made his debut but was largely unimpressive. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't good either. He was just there, and given his recent injury history, that's a fine start. One of Monaco's big x-factors in this one though was team captain Yakuba Ouattara who knocked down two threes in the second quarter to keep Monaco alive. They won the second quarter by three points and then took the lead in the third quarter. Okobo had a strong showing, James finished with a double-double with 18 points and 11 assists, and Diallo hit a dagger three late in the fourth quarter to seal a huge victory for Monaco.
They went back home and beat ALBA Berlin in Round 4 behind another strong performance from James where he got solid contributions from his supporting cast. The key to Monaco's success will be what they can get from the likes of Brown, Blossomgame, Diallo, and Ouattara. When those four are making open shots, grabbing rebounds, and active on defense this team is one of the hardest to beat. When they're not, there's a significant drop. Whatever changes Head Coach Sasa Obradovic made between week 2 and week 3 to help set up his wing players for success will play a major role in determining this team's overall ceiling.
EuroLeague winners: Injury-riddled Fenerbahce go 2-0
Things change quickly in EuroLeague, and a team's season can drastically change with just a few weeks of bad luck. For Fenerbahce, it looked like they were entering a spell of misfortune following Round 2. They lost a close game on the road against Valencia, Tyler Dorsey got injured, and loanee Arturs Zagars suffered a brutal injury playing for BC Wolves.
It seemed as though the basketball gods were looking down on Fenerbahce, but that wasn't going to stop Head Coach Dimitris Itoudis. They hosted Panathinaikos in Round 3. The Greens were coming off their first EuroLeague victory of the Ergin Ataman era after beating FC Bayern Munich in Round 2 and were hungry to prove their among the league's elite on the road in Istanbul.
Fenerbahce shut any hope of that down in the first quarter. After a slow start that saw the score knotted at six points each through the first four minutes, Fenerbahce started to pull away. Nick Calathes was inserted into the starting lineup for Dorsey and it worked a charm. Fenerbahce applied full-court pressure and kept that intensity in the half-court. Panathinaikos turned the ball over six times in the first quarter.
Fenerbahce capitalized on the transition opportunities from this and started to build a lead. Kostas Sloukas was locked up by Calathes and Jonathan Motley kept Matthias Lessort quiet. Panathinaikos didn't have many other options. Luca Vildoza came in for Sloukas and looked out of his depth. He was 0/3 on drives to the rim and got his shot blocked twice. Fener rolled, leading 27-9 at the end of the first quarter, and never looked back.
Calathes finished with 12 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds. He knocked down two threes and orchestrated the game brilliantly. Everyone was involved in Fenerbahce. Motley finished with 14 points, Georgios Papagiannis led the way with 15 and drained three 3's, and Mark Guduric finished with 12 points on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting.
In Round 4, Fenerbahce hosted LDLC ASVEL Villeurbane who are still hunting for their first win of the season. ASVEL led by 12 at the end of the first quarter and 13 at halftime. Fenerbahce looked gassed heading into the break, but they bounced back in the third quarter, outsourcing ASVEL 30-15 to take the lead heading into the fourth.
It was a team effort for the Turkish club once again. Five players — Scottie Wilbekin, Tarik Biberovic, Motley, Guduric, and Nigel Hayes-Davis — finished in double-figures, and Calathes had another impressive performance with 7 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists. Fenerbahce has a deep squad with a lot of experience. They know what it takes to win in the EuroLeague, and they're showing that week in and week out.
EuroLeague losers: Dusko Ivanovic got fired, again
T.J. Parker became the first EuroLeague coach to get fired this season (well, second if you count Scariolo who got fired a week before the season started) and then Crvena Zvezda parted ways with Dusko Ivanovic over the weekend. Zvezda is 1-3 through four rounds of action with their only win coming at home in the opening round against now 0-4 ASVEL, the other team who fired their coach. At that birdseye view, this may make some sense to people.
Zvezda invested a lot in the squad this offseason, bringing in the likes of Teodosic, Napier, Rokas Giedraitis, Joel Bolomboy, Marko Simonovic, Adam Hanga and so many others. Club President Nebojsa Covic said the goal for this season is to reach the Final Four. Zvezda also missed the EuroLeague playoffs last season and lost to Partizan in the ABA league finals. Again, on paper, firing Ivanovic makes sense. We still think this was an overreaction though.
Zvezda has looked solid through their four games. They blew ASVEL out of the gym to start the season, suffered a tough road loss in Round 2 against Zalgiris, came back home and lost another tough game against Monaco, and then lost on the road against Virtus Bologna. In all four games, the ball zipped around the court as if all five players had it on a string. Giedraitis was raining threes, Napier and Teodosic were breaking opponents down, Nedovic regularly unleashed his entire offensive arsenal, and while it wasn't reflected in their record they truly looked like one of the better teams in EuroLeague.
Results matter, though, especially for someone like Ivanovic who is known for pushing his players through five-hour practices regularly during the season. He rarely has a lot of friends on the roster which means when things start going south, no one is there to protect him. He's an easy scapegoat and Zvezda has already brought in Ioannis Sfairopoulos as his replacement.
Sfairopoulos's first two games? On the road against archrivals Partizan Belgrade. In EuroLeague this Thursday and then in domestic play on October 30. He's been thrown in the deep end, and we'll find out if he sinks or swims.
EuroLeague losers: Partizan are off to another slow start
Speaking of Partizan, they are also 1-3 through four rounds of EuroLeague action. Head coach Zeljko Obradovic will likely never be fired, but there is some cause for concern in their poor start to the season. Similar to their rivals, Red Star, Partizan has only managed to beat ASVEL who they dominated in Round 2.
They got cooked in the opening round by Maccabi Tel Aviv, were thoroughly outplayed on their home court in Round 3 against Barcelona, and then lost on the road in overtime against Olympiacos in Round 4. Their fight in Piraeus was notable and commendable, but in their other two losses, they were a step too slow for the entire game.
The offense is the more worrying side of the ball currently. There is not a lot of team play. It's not quite my turn, your turn basketball, but is somehow something worse. There are possessions where they appear to have zero idea of what they're actually trying to do. Kevin Punter is taking too many contested early shot-clock jumpers for comfort and is currently 1-of-12 from deep in EuroLeague play. Zach LeDay looks like he's been robbed of his basketball talent entirely. He is shooting 25 percent from 3 after shooting 38 percent from deep last season. Frank Kaminsky can't seem to make a good play without making a bad play that balances out, and P.J. Dozier varies from unguardable to unwatchable.
They don't have any versatility at center, either, and that's hurting them. Kaminsky, Balsa Koprivica, and Alen Smailagic are all slow-footed. They don't offer a vertical threat that could help apply rim pressure and open the floor up for LeDay, Punter, Nunnally, and Dozier. Partizan is no stranger to slow starts. They were 1-3 through four rounds last season and then 4-8 after Round 12.
They turned that around and were eventually one win away from the EuroLeague Final Four, so maybe they can work that magic this season too. But their disjointed offense is alarming, and their more dependent on EuroLeague rookies this season than they were last season. If anyone deserves time it's Obradovic, but giving viewers something to be optimistic about would be a huge step in the right direction.
EuroLeague losers: New roster, new coach, same Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos is another 1-3 club after four rounds of action. Like Crvena Zvezda, they invested a lot this offseason and rebuilt their entire team essentially. They also brought in Head Coach Ergin Ataman to right the ship after his dynastic spell in charge of Anadolu Efes Istanbul.
Through four games, though, this is starting to look like the same Panathinaikos team that hasn't come close to making the playoffs this decade. They lead the league in turnovers, averaging 16 per game. Sloukas, who joined from rivals Olympiacos this summer to take on a bigger offensive role, doesn't seem cut out for carrying a team's offense like Vasilije Micic did for Ataman at Efes. He's averaging 4.3 turnovers per game to give himself a perfect 1-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Sloukas' struggles bleed into the poor performance of Mathias Lessort. The vivacious and imposing French center joined from Partizan Belgrade after making the All-EuroLeague first team last season. Juancho Hernangomez has zero idea what he's supposed to be doing on offense. He's not a good enough shooter to be a stretch big, and when playing with Lessort he can't go into the paint because he'll clog driving lanes up. Luca Vildoza is averaging fewer points, fewer assists, turning the ball over more, and shooting worse from three.
This team has zero identity. Their only halfcourt offense is the pick-and-roll which Sloukas and Lessort have not run at the level expected of them. On defense, they lack rim protection, switchability, and the overall athleticism to apply perimeter pressure and get deflections. In all three of their losses, they have been the worst team on both ends of the floor.
Marius Grigonis has been arguably their best player, and that's unlikely to get any team into the playoffs, especially in a league as stacked as this one. Maybe they're waiting to see if there's an NBA name they can add after final cuts are made, but this squad requires a few players, not just a missing piece.
EuroLeague lines of the week:
James' 18 points and 11 assists to get a huge road victory against Crvena Zvezda takes the cake for Round 3.
Chima Moneke scored a league-high 32 points, grabbed 9 rebounds, and shot 4/8 from deep in Baskonia's Round 4 loss at home against Zalgiris Kaunas.
EuroLeague quote of the week:
"I'd rather lose one match by 40 than 40 games by one." — Bayern Munich Head Coach Pablo Laso after their 39 points loss to Barcelona.
EuroLeague clip of the week:
Fenerbahce's mascot has many skills, including crowd control.
