Ivanovic and Vildoza threaten Baskonia’s ‘playoff’ position
MADRID, 22 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Cazoo Baskonia will once again have this Thursday (7:00 p.m.) an examination of their benefits at home in the Regular Phase of the Euroleague 2022-2023 in their visit to the Red Star of two old men known as Dusko Ivanovic and Luca Vildoza, against whom they play continue in the ‘playoff’ zone.
The maximum continental competition is already entering its decisive phase. With five days to go before the Regular Phase ends, Joan Peñarroya’s team is eighth in the rankings with a 15-14 record, similar to that of Lithuanian Zalgiris Kaunas and with a victory advantage over Valencia Basket and Turkish Anadolu Efes.
The margin of error for the Baskonistas is not too wide, especially after chaining two consecutive defeats, but in their favor is the calendar, with the next three games in their fort at the Fernando Buesa Arena and a final outing to Piraeus against Olympiacos , to which he intends to arrive with his homework done and without urgency.
And that happens by not failing in the noisy and ‘hot’ Aleksandar Nikolic of Belgrade where a Red Star awaits him in low hours and with few options to get into the top eight, but always hard to crack at home, which gives him will add difficulty to a lively Baskonia, but that does not hit the key at home in the Euroleague.
The team from Vitoria faces this important duel after storming the WiZink Center again last Sunday, this time in the Endesa League, but despite the fact that they won in the Madrid fiefdom not long ago in this Regular Phase, it is still too irregular as a visitor. In fact, last week they lost clearly in Tel Aviv against Maccabi (93-79), in what was their second consecutive defeat after losing at home against AS Monaco (93-102), just after their great victory. against Chus Mateo’s men, so they must recover the path of victory as soon as possible.
The current moment for Red Star seems propitious for Baskonia to be able to straighten the course. The Serbian team is one of those with the worst streak in this stretch of the campaign, with only two victories in the last ten games, but in their last game at Aleksandar Nikolic they already gave a good account of Efes (94-75). and that he was also capable of overwhelming an important rival like AS Monaco (92-68).
Dusko Ivanovic will continue to lose Branko Lazic and is waiting to see if he can recover Ognjen Dobric and Nemanja Nedovic, who were absent in Friday’s narrow defeat at the Palau (85-79). In addition to the Montenegrin coach, Baskonia will meet again with the Argentine Luca Vildoza, author of the basket that gave the team from Vitoria the last league title and who was not at the match at the Buesa Arena.
The point guard is not very fit in recent games, quite the opposite of a Facundo Campazzo who arrives in good shape, so you could see a nice duel with the couple formed by the visitors Markus Howard and Darius Thompson.
DATASHEET.
–EQUIPMENT.
RED STAR: Campazzo, Vildoza, Lazarevic, Bentil and Martin –possible starting five– Mitrovic, Petrusev, Kuzmic, Ivanovic, Markovic, Ilic, Nedovic and Dobric.
CAZOO BASKONIA: Thompson, Marinkovic, Giedraitis, Hommes and Kotsar –possible starting five–; Howard, Costello, Heidegger, Raieste, Enoch, Díez and Kurucs.
–REFEREES: Difallah, Rocha and Panther.
–PAVILION: Aleksandar Nikolic.
–TIME: 19.00/DAZN.