Baskonia does not want to complicate the ‘Play-In’ in Belgrade
MADRID, 18 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Baskonia faces the last double matchday of the 2023-2024 Euroleague Regular Phase season, in which Dusko Ivanovic’s team will have two consecutive outings, the first this Tuesday (8:30 p.m.) in an always complicated scenario such as the stadium. Serbian Partizan where he will have the objective of trying to seal at least ‘Play-In’ and closely follow an increasingly expensive ‘Top 6’.
After achieving victory in the last two Euroleague matches, Baskonia faces a very demanding final of the Regular Phase, in which four of its five matches will be away from the Buesa Arena and the majority against direct rivals, so they will have to become stronger at home, something that is not usual for the Vitorian team.
The Baskonista team begins this double day from eighth position with a balance of 16 wins and 13 losses, two behind the ‘Top 6’ that Fenerbahce closes, tied with ninth (Maccabi) and three ahead of a trio of teams among which is precisely his next rival, so the victory would put him very well on track for the ‘Play-In’. Defeat, on the other hand, could complicate the future and would practically mean saying goodbye to finishing in the top six.
“We only have to look at the first game. We have to be very focused, aware that if we play aggressively in defense, we will always have a chance of winning against any team and that it depends only on ourselves,” Ivanovic warned.
The Montenegrin coach stressed that “Partizan is a team with a lot of talent in attack, with many players who can score a lot of points, who can play one-on-one situations, especially ‘pick and roll’.” “So especially in defense, the things we have done wrong so far we have to improve,” he said.
Baskonia visits a Balkan team that is always very dangerous in the huge Stark Arena and in front of its ‘hot’ fans, against whom it has only lost in three of its 13 home games in the top continental competition, one more obstacle for a team Vitorian who continues with a negative balance at home (6-7).
To do this, he hopes to count on the good moment that Markus Howard is going through, once again sensational last weekend in the clear victory against Coviran Granada (104-88) where he scored 37 points, with 10 triples, a mark that joins the 26 signed against EA7 Emporio Armani Milano and the other 37 against Barça in the Endesa League, for an average of 33.3 points per game.
For its part, Partizan, which has just added two defeats in a row against Barça and Olimpia Milano and which will host Real Madrid on Thursday, starts from tenth position with a negative balance of 13 wins and 16 losses. Zeljko Obradovic’s team is not as solid as last year and in 2024 it has only won four of its 12 Euroleague games, missing a better version of its offensive reference, Kevin Punter.
DATASHEET.
–EQUIPMENT.
PARTISAN: Avramovic, Punter, Ponitka, Leday and Kaminsky –possible quinteto initial–; Andjusic, Caboclo, Dozier, Jaramaz, Nunnally, Smailagic and Trifunovic.
BASCONY: Miller-McIntyre, Howard, Ten, Costello and Kotsar –possible starting quintet–; Marinkovic, Moneke, Theodore, Raieste, Sedekerskis, Rogkavopoulos and Chiozza.
–REFEREES: Lottermoser, Vilius and Vyklicky.
–PAVIL: Stark Arena.
–TIME: 8:30 p.m./Movistar Deportes 2.