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Dynamo will play with Panathinaikos in the Euroleague playoffs

For the first time in Russian history, two of our men's clubs were among the eight strongest teams on the continent. Both the current holders of the Euroleague champion title ULEB CSKA and the capital's Dynamo team reached the quarterfinals of the current draw. The “red-blues” did it ahead of schedule, and yesterday’s match against the Serbian “Partizan” (the game ended late in the evening Moscow time) had no sporting significance for the Muscovites, and the “white-blues” won the coveted ticket in a dramatic battle against “Benetton” (Italy) -- 68:65 in the extra five minutes.

According to the regulations of the ULEB Euroleague, in the last round, matches of adjacent groups must begin at the same time. However, in this case, the directors of the Union of European Basketball Leagues took an overly formal approach. Anything specific regarding reaching the playoffs was decided only in the Moscow match, and Dynamo made a request to play the game early. After all, for fans, getting out of Krylatskoye around midnight, where there is really no public transport, is extremely problematic. However, the requests of the leadership of the “blue and white” went unheeded. It is worth remembering that when the army team found themselves in a similar situation, only this happened at the end of the first group stage, they were allowed to start a non-tournament match with the Turkish Fenerbahce not at 21.24, but at 20.15, as the “red-blues” requested.

The meeting between Dynamo and Benetton became a duel for the fifth year, Serbian Dusan Ivkovic, who has been working with clubs in our country, and the coach of the Russian national team, David Blatt, who leads the team from Treviso. The first half of the game was left to the guests - by the big break they were leading by 12 points. Then Blatt lost control of the game and his players, who frankly failed in the third quarter. The Greek Antonios Fotsis scattered, Dynamo scored 13 (!) unanswered points, the basketball players from Treviso demonstrated complete helplessness in attack. Thus the intrigue was revived in this fight, which was maintained for the rest of the time.

Both Dynamo Greeks played a great match. The same Fotsis acted successfully at the end of the fourth period, when he reduced the three-point gap in a minute thanks to his persistence under the shield. As a result, Antonios scored 22 points, his colleague on the Greek national team Lazar Popandopoulo added 11 rebounds to 24 points. During the match, nothing special stood out to American Andy Gill, who was sitting on the bench, but it was he who, at the end of overtime, accurately executed a throw from behind the six-meter line, which virtually eliminated the question of the winner of the match. Another Dynamo basketball player from the USA, Tyquon Dean, who replaced the injured Travis Hansen, played rather stupidly. With some kind of manic persistence, he fired and fired at the opponent’s ring from a long distance, not wanting to come up with something else. Eight shots from the arc, and all missed the target!

The match statistics are very revealing. Dynamo, as expected, entered a dozen players (including seven Russians), all five foreign players and five of our basketball players entered the court, but out of 68 points, the foreigners scored 65. Only one accurate shot was made by the ex-NBA player and almost the leader the current Russian national team Sergei Monya plus another point from a free kick on the account of Yuri Vasiliev. In this situation, it is probably not entirely correct to present Dynamo’s reaching the quarterfinals of the Euroleague as an achievement of Russian basketball as a whole.

Fotsis set a Euroleague record for rebounds - 24. This is one more than Mirsad Turkana during his performances in CSKA (2001/02 season, match against the Serbian Buducnost). The changes in Fotsis's game are amazing. In the previous meeting, which Dynamo lost to the Spanish Unicaja on the road, the Greek brought the team only two points and made two rebounds, although he spent 25 minutes on the court. So it’s completely unclear what to expect from Antonios in the playoff matches against his former team. The Dynamo forward spent four seasons at Pao and in 2000 became the Euroleague champion as part of the Athens club.

In the quarterfinal series up to two wins, according to the 1-1-1 scheme, the following meet: CSKA - Maccabi (Tel Aviv, Israel), Panathinaikos - Dynamo, Unicaja - Barcelona, Taugres - Olympiacos (or Partizan). The Belgrade team's entry into the playoffs was possible only if it defeated CSKA and the Greek team lost at home to Juventud. “Dynamo” has a very difficult task in the upcoming matches on April 3, 5 and, if necessary, April 12. After all, Pao is the host of the Euroleague Final Four.

Ilya TRISVIATSKY