Olympiacos and Fenerbahçe promised a spectacle and delivered a brickfest. The Belgrade derby lived up to the hype, Jonas Valančiūnas wasn’t happy about being taken out, and TJ Shorts looks like his old self again.
Welcome to another edition of the EuroLeague Notebook.
A Basketball Festival… Of Bricks
Every now and then, even amid the madness of everyday life, everything falls into place. The kid is asleep, I have nothing on my schedule, and I’m on the couch, remote in hand.
A basketball festival awaits: Olympiacos vs Fenerbahçe in Athens.
And a festival it was. Of mistakes and bricks.
Somehow, a team that missed eight free throws in the opening quarter still finished it with a 12-point lead. How? Well, the other team went seven minutes and 32 seconds without putting the ball through the hoop.
Sasha Vezenkov, the reigning EuroLeague MVP, had an open shot to extend the misery for another five minutes.
He missed. Fittingly, it was an airball.
Fortunately, the previous evening’s Belgrade derby between Partizan and Crvena Zvezda lived up to expectations in terms of intensity and drama. Carlik Jones is relentless!
Valančiūnas Didn’t Want to Come Off
Seven points in five minutes. ASVEL had no answer for Jonas Valančiūnas.
Then he spent almost ten minutes on the bench. He came back. Three minutes later – substituted again.
Valančiūnas was visibly frustrated. He protested as he walked off the court, kept venting for a little while after taking his seat, and then quickly calmed down.
He returned to the floor before halftime and finished with 15 points and eight rebounds in his team’s comfortable 105–85 victory over ASVEL.
Ergin, Are You Watching?
It was difficult for anyone to shine last season amid the chaos of Ergin Ataman’s Panathinaikos, but perhaps nobody suffered more than TJ Shorts.
Yet the left-handed point guard has started this season as though he had wiped last year from his memory, his muscles and his confidence… as though he had moved straight from Paris to Valencia.
His team sit at 5–2, and they could easily have been 7–0. Against his former team Paris, Shorts showed why he is one of the best point guards in Europe – 25 points, four rebounds and nine assists, with just one turnover.
Through the first seven rounds, Shorts has been a joy to watch, and the numbers back it up: 17.1 points and 6.1 assists per game.
Numbers That Stand Out
– Four teams scored 100+ points: Dubai, Real Madrid, Žalgiris and Valencia. The same thing happened in Rounds 2 and 6. Overall, teams have reached the century mark 18 times this season.
– The shot-blockers had quite a round. Kai Jones of Anadolu Efes, Aliou Diarra of Virtus and Oshae Brissett of Maccabi recorded four blocks apiece.
– Real Madrid made it four straight wins, knocking down a season-high 21 three-pointers on 40 attempts – both the most makes and the best percentage by any team this season. The all-time record belongs to Fenerbahçe, who hit 24 threes against Valencia in March 2024.
– Tyson Etienne attempted 42 three-pointers in his previous three games. Against Valencia – just five. Somebody better check if everything’s OK with Etienne.
– Stefan Joksimović, who turns 18 in November, produced his best EuroLeague performance yet at OAKA – 13 points and three assists in 19 minutes. Keep an eye on the 194cm-tall Baskonia player.
