4 Euroleague powerhouses too tired in their domestic leagues
4 Euroleague powerhouses too tired in their domestic leagues
The Euroleague season has just started and you can see already teams that are already “tired” to play at a good level in their internal competition. This weekend revealed once again the factors that are affecting the squads involved in the same time in the main European tournament and in their domestic league:
- fatigue due to the fact they are playing many games in a short period
- large travel distance to make
- lack of motivation to give everything on the court because you are focused more on the results in the Euroleague
Let’s see the 4 Euroleague teams that were not on their best shape this weekend:
4. Real Madrid – they have stolen with a bit of luck the victory in Tenerife, after a come back in the 4th quarter. The Merengues won eventually with 76-71 against Iberostar, but they seemed like a team that is saving energy for the Euroleague’s next round.
3. F.C. Barcelona – after the revenge winning in the Euroleague in Istanbul against the local team Anadolu Efes, the Azulgrana team was no able to beat MoraBanc Andorra, ceasing the game with 84-86. They played relaxed because they are in front of another away game next week when F.C. Barcelona will make a large trip to Zenit Sankt-Petersburg.
2. Fenerbahce – they have played a very tied game at home against Gaziantep, even if the visitors had only 4 foreigners in the roster for this encounter. In the last minutes, Fenerbahce smashed the opponents 84-75 because of the larger rotation.
1. Baskonia played one of the worst nightmarish game at home, looking like an easy victory but in the end, it was an unexpected loss. After leading with 13 points at the half time, Baskonia slowly melted like ice cream in the second part of the game. Even so, they had 5 point advantage in the last minute but they were not able to defend the 3 points line and eventually lost with 77-78. In their case, the tiredness is could be explained by the large trip go and back to Zalgiris where they have won the first round of the Euroleague.
Photo: euroleague.net
Gratian Cormos
