Fenerbahçe Found Two Ways to Win
Fenerbahçe Beko closed the double week with two wins that shared a result and little else. Against Bayern Munich, Jasikevicius’s team scored 100 points on 15-of-30 shooting from three with 25 assists. The engine was early offense. Guards pushed the ball up the floor before Bayern could build its half-court shell, wings filled the corners, and the first pass available was often a skip over the top to the weak side. Bayern’s closeouts arrived late because the defense had not finished sorting matchups, and most of those threes came as open catch-and-shoot attempts.
Two days later against Dubai Basketball the same team scored 76 with 14 assists. Rather than keep firing, they turned the game into a half-court grind: 13 offensive rebounds, plus-eight on the glass, 13 turnovers forced. Wade Baldwin ran that game with 14 points, five assists and no turnovers through heavy contact. A control guard keeps that line clean.
Talen Horton-Tucker scored 19 against Bayern, and his value sits in the downhill pressure he creates. Once he puts a shoulder into a defender and reaches the rim, the weak side has to help. The season-level X-factor may be Marcus Bingham Jr, who posted 20 points and eight rebounds against Dubai and hit 4-of-5 threes at 2.13 meters. A stretch five who makes shots drags the opposing rim protector out of the paint, and once that giant steps out, driving lanes open for Baldwin and Braxton Key.
Key’s switch defense from point guard to center gives Jasikevicius a coverage anchor that survives modern pick-and-roll basketball. The minutes distribution carried a message of its own: no Fenerbahçe player logged more than 26 minutes. Over a double week that is load management with a purpose. Fourth-quarter defensive intensity requires legs in the first three quarters.
Efes Lost Its Center of Gravity
Efes opened with a 94-84 win over Real Madrid behind P.J. Dozier’s 18 points and 14 from Strazel. Then came the trip to Crvena Zvezda, a 72-77 loss, and the Mike James Achilles injury that changed the shape of their season. James brings 15 to 20 points a night. The damage ran deeper.
Against Zvezda, Efes turned the ball over 18 times and allowed 10 offensive rebounds in the first half. Those numbers describe a team that lost its isolation comfort and the gravity that came with it. James bends a defense before he touches the ball. As he crosses half court, all five defenders tilt half a step his way, and that half step is the space everyone else used. Zvezda’s defenders stayed glued to their men. The offense stalled without an individual release valve.
What Cameron Payne Can and Cannot Fix
The front office moved fast for Cameron Payne, who averaged 12.4 points at Partizan. Physical EuroLeague guards will put a shoulder into him, and opponents will hunt him in switch actions to test him at the point of attack. The other side of that ledger: transition tempo, left-handed penetration, and pick-and-pop chemistry with Dario Šarić, who played close to a point-center against Zvezda with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Šarić sets the screen and pops, Payne turns the corner, and a dropping big leaves Šarić open at the top of the key.
Pablo Laso’s task is to resist casting Payne as the new James. Payne cannot carry that creation load. The ball handling has to spread across Dozier, Lloyd and Strazel, with Payne changing tempo in short bursts.
Beşiktaş Have a Hole at the Rim
Beşiktaş returned to the EuroLeague after 13 years and beat Maccabi 109-93 while shooting 58.6% from three. Anthony Brown went 6-of-7 from deep for 20 points, and Willum and Dotson pushed the pace and ran Maccabi off the floor. Two days later Barcelona won 82-95 in Istanbul and Beşiktaş shot 8-of-33 from three, 24.2%.
Barcelona’s full-court pressure and half-court traps did close passing lanes. The larger problem sat inside. With Mathias Lessort’s contract frozen over health issues, the paint lost its anchor. Ante Žižić can score with his back to the basket, and his feet are heavy in pick-and-roll coverage. Guards turn the corner and reach the rim. Barcelona shot 52.5% in the paint and went to the line 27 times, and much of that fouling came from defenders trying to plug the gap behind them. Dušan Alimpijević tried small ball with Wayne Selden, Gabriel and Conor Morgan, and Barcelona’s size won those minutes.
Beşiktaş Need a Rim Runner
Morgan gives Beşiktaş their spacing, so the search should aim elsewhere. They need a vertical threat: an athlete who protects the rim, alters or blocks shots, and finishes lobs as a roller. That center also has to move his feet in drop coverage and punish a defense with vertical spacing on the roll. Until he arrives, EuroLeague guards will treat the paint as an open road.
The Pattern Behind the Results
Fenerbahçe showed the value of a second plan. Efes showed how fast an offense loses its center when the primary creator goes down. Beşiktaş showed that a hot shooting night wins one game and a missing rim protector loses several. Three rosters, three problems, and a double week that mapped them out.
