Besiktas needs to start winning games
Beşiktaş will face Galatasaray in the 19th week of the Turkish Basketball Super League. The match will be played on Saturday, March 4 at Bjk Emlakjet Sports Complex.
The host, Besiktas have a deplorable season. They are last in the standings with only 4 wins in 18 rounds, 2 wins from the 14th place that does not relegate. Recently, their team has undergone a lot of changes, they come after a month without matches played and enough time for new players and the coach to get to know each other. The most important changes were the bringing of Allerik Freeman from Umana Venezia, Parker Jackson-Cartwright from Asvel, MVP from Basketball Bundesliga last year, Isaiah Whitehead from Ludwigsburg, former NBA player and Michal Sokolowski from Treviso Basket. Igor Miličić received very important reinforcements, besides which he can also use Jordan Usher and David McCormack. However, problems persist on the side of the Turkish players, where only Yildizli, Ulubay and Guven can help. Anyway, the sunshine can be seen in the 3 rounds since the arrival of the new ones, of which Freeman played only in one, they lost 2 matches by 4 and 3 points and won by 17 points with Konyaspor.
For Galatasaray, a very difficult period is coming, considering the complicated situation in the championship and the fact that they are also playing in Europe. In the championship, they are in 12th place with 7 wins and 11 defeats, with only one victory from Darussafaka, in 6th place. In the Champions League, they have a win and a defeat in a group with Aek Athens, Unicaja and Limoges, the double with Unicaja follows this week. If they want to have real chances to qualify, they must obtain at least one victory in these 2 games. The one-month break was perfect for them, considering that they had only one win with Limoges in the last 8 matches. After the departure of Dee Bost, Daron Russell was brought in and he already had a positive impact on the offensive phase with 13 ppg in his first 2 games in the championship. Dylan Ennis is the main offensive weapon with 16.3 ppg, Caloiaro helps with 12.5 and McGee with 12.4. The contribution of the Turks is brought by Kabaca with 10.9 ppg and Koksal with 8.1 ppg.
Two teams with totally different objectives but both motivated will meet. We will see who prepared better in this one-month break.
Valentin Petruta
Photo credit: Besiktas
