Euroleague Power Rankings: Real Madrid Is No. 1, While Nets Prospect Bojan Bogdanovic Wins Weekly MVP Award

RANK	TEAM	THE RUNDOWN	LAST
1	Real Madrid (5-0; 12-3)	LAST WEEK: Won 58-54 at Panathinaikos THIS WEEK: Thursday vs. CSKA Moscow Don’t let the low score fool you; Madrid’s win in Athens was no grind-it-out slugfest. In fact, it was quite the opposite, as Real and Panathinaikos chucked 55 of 112 total shots from three-point range, combining to make only 12 (about 22 percent). I suppose Madrid should be encouraged that their lowest point total of the year produced a win in a hostile environment, however, it’s hard to get too excited when the Sergio Bros (Llull and Rodriguez) played as poorly as they did (2-of-17 with four assists).	2
2	CSKA Moscow(4-1; 13-2)	LAST WEEK: Lost 94-81 vs. Unicaja THIS WEEK: Thursday at Real Madrid CSKA pulled off quite a remarkable feat at home against Unicaja, in that they went to the line 29 times (versus just nine FTs for Unicaja) and shot 48 percent from the field and still managed to lose by 13 to a club that hadn’t beaten a team with a winning record since November 15. They had a good run at the top, but Ettore Messina will need to clog some defensive holes on the perimeter. Still extremely far from panic mode, though.	1
3	Regal Barcelona (4-1; 13-2)	LAST WEEK: Won 90-79 at Caja Laboral THIS WEEK: Thursday vs. Montepaschi Siena Barcelona beat Caja Laboral, turned around, and then stole one of their most prized veterans–Brad Oleson–out from under Baskonia’s noses. Oleson, who was in his fourth season with Caja Laboral, is exactly what Barcelona needs: a smart guard who can bang outside shots and stretch the floor for Ante Tomic and a struggling Erazem Lorbek. But the bad news here is that Oleson was signed after the Euroleague deadline, and will only be able to participate in Spanish League games. Bad news Part II is that Juan Carlos Navarro will miss a couple of weeks with a leg injury. That means he won’t be able to suit up when undefeated Siena comes to Palau Blaugrana this Thursday.	5
4	Khimki Moscow(3-2; 9-6)	LAST WEEK: Lost 85-82 at Fenerbahce Ulker THIS WEEK: Friday at Caja Laboral One of the more curious recurring themes this Euroleague season is Khimki’s inability to stomp all over Fenerbahce Ulker, a task with which few other upper echelon teams have struggled. After a 12-point loss in the season opener, Khimki needed a last-second KC Rivers miracle (and a lucky break with that red light that illuminates the backboard) to win their second clash. Now, Moscow’s second team has handed the Turks their first Top 16 win. Zoran Planinic was his usual fantastic self with 25 points, 6 assists and 6 boards, and he’ll need another one of those as Khimki travels to Vitoria this week to face Caja Laboral, who’s also coming off a loss.	3
5	Montepaschi Siena (5-0; 10-5)	LAST WEEK: Won 63-57 vs. Besiktas THIS WEEK: Thursday at Barcelona Besiktas grabbed Siena by the ankle and yanked them down a few notches of ugly, but Bobby Brown dropped in 13 and Viktor Sanikidze had one of his more efficient offensive outings in a while with Tomas Ress in street clothes. Daniel Hackett and David Moss hold this team together defensively (definitely not Brown’s forte), but Luca Lecthaler (19 minutes on the season) might have to step up big in Barcelona to keep Tomic and Nathan Jawai from bullying a Ress-less frontline.	6
6	Caja Laboral(4-1; 8-7)	LAST WEEK: Lost 90-79 vs. Barcelona THIS WEEK: Friday at Khimki Moscow Losing Brad Oleson is a huge blow for Caja Laboral. Not only because he was hitting 50 percent of his threes this season and hardly turning it over (.8 per game), but because he was the only person that had been on the team as long as Fernando San Emeterio had (both in their fourth seasons). Czech shooting guard David Jelinek comes over from Olin Edirne of the Turkish League to replace him, but the 22-year-old Jelinek’s greatest weakness, an inconsistent jump shot, was Oleson’s strongest asset.	4
7	Olympiacos (2-3; 10-5)	LAST WEEK: Won 78-77 at Maccabi THIS WEEK: Thursday vs. Fenerbahce Ulker Evangelos Mantzaris is Olympiacos’ best perimeter defender and the Euroleague’s leader in assist-to-turnover ratio at an insane 4.3 to 1. Or perhaps I should say was. Now the 22-year-old ball hawk is out for the season with a ruptured ACL, and the onus is on Acie Law and Kostas Sloukas to pick up the slack.	9
8	Anadolu Efes(4-1; 9-6)	LAST WEEK: Won 56-52 vs. Zalgiris THIS WEEK: Friday at Unicaja Malaga Over the last three weeks, nobody has allowed fewer points (63.5 ppg) or forced more turnovers (15.5) than these Turks, and it was that very same defense that held Zalgiris to their lowest point total of the season (52) last Friday in Kaunas.	10
9	Unicaja (2-3; 10-5)	LAST WEEK: Won 94-81 at CSKA Moscow THIS WEEK: Friday at Anadolu Efes Right when you’re ready to shrug off Unicaja as merely a team that feasts on the poor and flashes only occasional quarters of togetherness, they go out and beat one of the Euroleague’s top dogs. We’ve seen roller coasters like this before with Malaga, but not quite to this degree, beating Moscow in Moscow. By double digits. This team has more talent from one-through-five than those who’ve come before them, and thus have a chance to make a run like they did in the regular season if the wind blows right. Just remember who we’re dealing with here, and temper your expectations accordingly.	11
10	Panathinaikos(3-2; 9-6)	LAST WEEK: Lost 58-54 vs. Real Madrid THIS WEEK: Friday vs. Bamberg Stephane Lasme came up huge for Panathinaikos in the regular season, but has seen his blocks drop from 2.6 to 1 and his points from 10.1 to 6.4 in the Top 16 despite a two-minute bump in playing time. With James Gist in tow, Panathinaikos’ frontline is more mobile than it was with Andy Panko at the four, but only Michael Bramos seems intent on keeping opposing guards out of the lane when Dimitris Diamantidis sits.	7
11	Zalgiris(1-4; 9-6)	LAST WEEK: Lost 56-52 at Anadolu Efes THIS WEEK: Thursday vs. Alba Berlin After an 8-2 regular season the wheels are starting to wobble in Kaunas, Lithuania. Their most recent loss is the most devastating to date, as Oliver Lafayette blew a wide-open lay up that would have tied things at 54 with the clock under five. After scoring at a torrid 114.4 points/100 possession pace in the regular season, Savas Birdal of Euro-step.net explains why that success has faded in the Top 16: teams have begun to slam the door on a Joan Plaza favorite, the high pick-and-roll.	8
12	Maccabi Tel Aviv(1-4; 9-6)	LAST WEEK: Lost 78-77 vs. Olympiacos THIS WEEK: Thursday at Besiktas Maccabi’s quarter-to-quarter production is as volatile as it gets in the Euroleague, with multiple single-digit periods to their name this season. The latest instance of seesawing came against Olympiacos, where the Israelis’ 14 and 15-point second and fourth quarters sandwiched a 29-point third. It’s Maccabi’s second loss at Nokia Arena in three Top 16 tries, so it’s lucky for them that the schedule sends them to Istanbul this week to face a Besiktas team that can’t score. But given the rocky relationship between Turkey and Israel in recent years, the Abdi Ipekçi Sports Hall should be even louder than usual.	12
13	Fenerbahçe Ülker (1-4; 6-9)	LAST WEEK: Won 85-82 vs. Khimki Moscow THIS WEEK: *Thursday at Olympiacos* Bojan Bogdanovic is proving just how dangerous he can be when he makes the defense decide whether to take away the drive or the jumper. After getting to the line just 2.6 times per contest in ten regular season games (58th most in the EL), he’s attacked more and more and is getting to the line 7.4 times per game so far in the Top 16 (2nd best). Against Khimki, he hit all 10 of his freebies and racked up a 27 index rating, good enough to split the Week 15 Co-MVP Award with Unicaja’s Marcus Williams. Remember: the Brooklyn Nets hold Bojan’s rights. But unlike Brooklyn fans, Istanbul residents couldn’t give a damn who drafted him as long as Bogdanovic can keep on pulling Fenerbahce out of this Hellish disaster of a season.	16
14	Alba Berlin (1-4; 5-10)	LAST WEEK: Won 82-63 vs. Bamberg THIS WEEK: *Thursday at Zalgiris* Berlin was one of two teams to throw their first W on the board this week (Fenerbahce the other), and they did it in style with a 19-point win in front of the home fans against arch rival Bamberg. It’s due in large part to Nihad Djedovic, who scored 20 on the heels of a 21-point outing last week. The back-to-back 20-pointers are a deviation from the norm, as the Bosnia and Herzegovinian is notorious for following scoring outbursts with invisibility acts.	15
15	Bamberg(0-5; 3-12)	LAST WEEK: Lost 82-63 at Alba Berlin THIS WEEK: Friday at Panathinaikos Common thinking was that Bamberg would need to, at a bare minimum, sweep Berlin to have a shot at advancing. After all, there’s no team in Group E more ripe for picking than their German counterparts. Or perhaps there is.	13
16	Besiktas(4-6)	LAST WEEK: Lost 63-57 at Montepaschi Siena THIS WEEK: Thursday vs. Maccabi Besiktas made Siena play a filthy game of hoops last week in the bad, hard-to-watch-way, but for the third time in as many weeks, they themselves failed to reach 60. When you score the least and turn it over the most, there’s really not much you can do.	14

Nick Gibson, editor of EuroleagueAdventures.com, covers Euroleague and other international basketball developments for SheridanHoops.com. Click here to follow him on Twitter.