The revelation of the season Valencia Basket is hosting the out of shape Fenerbahce
In Round 26 of Turkish Airlines Euroleague, Valencia receives the visit of Fenerbahce in a very tough and important duel for the last play-off positions between the revelation of the season and the deception of the season. In their last meeting, Valencia took an impressive OT win 100-98 thanks to the last second’s three-point play from Jordan Loyd. For the Spanish side, Bojan Dubljevic ended with 30 points and 12 rebounds, while for Fenerbahce, Nando de Colo responded with 31 points and 7 rebounds.
Last Friday, Valencia lost at home against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the first Euroleague round after the National Cups break. The game was balanced until the third part when Valencia took an impressive 13 point lead in the middle of the quarter. However, Maccabi resisted and then bounce back, after a tough last quarter, securing an 85-82 win against a strong Spanish side. The main contributors for Valencia were: Bojan Dubljevic (19 points and 3 rebounds), Maurice Ndour (12 points) and Joaquin Colom (10 points and 9 assists). For this game, the second-best scorer of the team, Jordan Loyd is out, while Sam Van-Rossom and Guillem Vives, important pieces of the bench, are doubtful.
After winning the Turkish Cup in a nice fashion, Fenerbahce received the visit of Real Madrid in their returning to the Euroleague action. Real came with several players out, including Anthony Randolph and Sergio Llull, which gave Fener the chance to beat the Spanish giants and come closer to the play-off spots. Real not only started strong and won the first quarter, but they also managed to keep the high tempo through the entire game and won every quarter with a margin of at least 4 points each concluding with a 94-65 win. Looking at the stats of the game, Fenerbahce was inferior at all the categories: 11-30 Assists, 18-33 Rebounds and 39%-61% at field attempts made. The main contributors of the Turkish team were: Nando De Colo (21 points and 6 assists), Jan Vesely (16 points and 3 rebounds) and Nikola Kalinic (9 points and 4 rebounds).
Fenerbahce needs to bounce back from that huge defeat against Real Madrid but could they find the motivation and energy to do that? Yesterday’s loss at home against Galatasaray is making me sceptical that Fenerbahce is on a good path this season. They seem to continue to losing streak and the lack of enthusiasm. This game is very important and both teams need the win here to increase their chances to a playoff position at the end of the regular season.
Photo: Euroleague
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
