| RANK | TEAM | THE RUNDOWN | LAST |
| 1 |
Barcelona |
LAST WEEK: Won 86-61 vs. Besiktas THIS WEEK: Thursday vs. Caja Laboral In 2011, arthroscopic surgery ran Pete Mickeal off the road and then an arterial blockage in his lung couched him for the rest of the season. He was 33 then, and supposedly on the decline. Two seasons later, the 35-year-old Mickeal has not only started all 19 games for Europe’s strongest team, he’s tops in minutes per game (26) and second in scoring at 11.8 PPG, (Juan Carlos Navarro has him by a 0.4-pointed nose at 12.2). |
1 |
| 2 |
Anadolu Efes
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LAST WEEK: Won 89-86 vs. Bamberg THIS WEEK: Thursday at Zalgiris Wins by five and three over the two German doormats only earn you love when other people are losing, and Efes was the beneficiary of some Unicaja magic in Madrid last week. Going to Kaunas will be difficult as long as Joan Plaza’s directing traffic on the bench, but Donnie McGrath and Oliver Lafayette won’t be able to handle Farmar and Lucas like Jaaber and Popvic could have. (Jaaber left the team due to personal issues; Popovic will miss his second straight week with ‘a muscle problem.’) |
3 |
| 3 | Real Madrid (9-2; 16-5) |
LAST WEEK: Lost 77-74 vs. Unicaja THIS WEEK: Thursday vs. Panathinaikos Nikola Mirotic went 1-of-6 from three, Madrid only hit 5-of-23 as a team and the Euroleague’s second-best rebounding team took down its very best rebounding team. If Real Madrid drops a second straight at home against Panathinaikos, then their grip on that top spot in Group E will have loosened to a point of possible-no-return. I’m personally praying that everyone stays tightly bunched at the top until Madrid and Efes face off in Istanbul on April 4 in the Top 16 finale. Efes currently holds the head-to-head edge by two points. |
2 |
| 4 | CSKA Moscow (8-3; 17-4) |
LAST WEEK: Won 70-61 vs. Zalgiris THIS WEEK: Thursday at Unicaja When does effortless domination evaporate into boredom and disinterest? In the third quarter of CSKA’s game against Zalgiris, it would seem. There wasn’t any way this Moscow team was dropping one to such a devastatingly shorthanded Zalgiris team, but they tried pretty damn hard to in the third period by…not trying to do much of anything at all. Every loose ball belonged to Zalgiris, Nenad Krstic fouled Ksistof Lavrinovic on a made three 23 feet away from the basket, and the team only grabbed four offensive rebounds (even worse than their league-worst 7.8 ORPG). |
4 |
| 5 | Olympiacos (7-4; 15-6) |
LAST WEEK: Won 68-67 at Montepaschi Siena THIS WEEK: Friday vs. Maccabi Last week a loss was followed by news of Georgios Printezis’ bad back. Olympiacos rebounded on both fronts; the Reds got a vital road win in Siena and will welcome their best power forward back against Maccabi. A win would put Maccabi permanently in Olympiacos’ rearview. |
6 |
| 6 | Montepaschi Siena (7-4; 12-9) |
LAST WEEK: Lost 68-67 vs. Olympiacos THIS WEEK: Friday at Besiktas Bobby Brown has only hit two threes in his last 25 attempts. That cold spell spans four games in which Siena is 1-3 and has coughed up two performances in the 60s (67, 61). A date with Besiktas might not necessarily get Siena back on the right track; the Turks held the Tuscans to just 63 in their first visit. Besiktas will slop things up as much possible. |
7 |
| 7 | Khimki Moscow (6-5; 12-9) |
LAST WEEK: Lost 80-79 at Maccabi THIS WEEK: Friday vs. Fenerbahce Ulker Ricky Hickman was the best point guard on the floor in Tel Aviv, scoring 30 and carrying Maccabi to their most crucial win of the season. Khimki has a knack for sputtering in crunch time in close games, and Zoran Planinic’s indecision in the closing minute did nothing to soothe those concerns. |
5 |
| 8 | Panathinaikos (7-4; 13-8) |
LAST WEEK: Won 82-58 vs. Alba Berlin THIS WEEK: Thursday at Real Madrid You think Madrid will drop two straight home games? Before these two met up in late January, I didn’t think anyone could hold Real Madrid in the 50s, so who the hell knows. |
8 |
| 9 | Maccabi Tel Aviv (5-5; 13-7) |
LAST WEEK: Won 80-79 vs. Khimki Moscow THIS WEEK: Friday at Olympiacos Shawn James’ season hasn’t taken a break since turning up in the third week of the regular season. His Top 16 averages are all up: from 10 points to 13, from 5.8 rebounds to 6.8 and from 1.6 blocks to 2.2, and he swatted a season-high five last week during the Ricky Hickman Show. |
9 |
| 10 | Unicaja (6-5; 14-7) |
LAST WEEK: Won 77-74 at Real Madrid THIS WEEK: Thursday vs. CSKA Moscow Panathinaikos: check. Real Madrid at Real Madrid. Shockingly, also check. Now it’s time to play CSKA Moscow and then go to Istanbul to play Efes. Win those and coast to the finish against Berlin. If Unicaja’s making it through to the quarterfinals (they sit one game back of Panathinaikos in Group E), they’ll have to earn it. |
11 |
| 11 | Caja Laboral (6-5; 11-10) |
LAST WEEK: Won 87-67 vs. Fenerbahce Ulker THIS WEEK: Thursday at Barcelona If Efes used Germany to keep their heads above troubled waters, Caja Laboral used Turkey to regain their balance. Wins against Besiktas and Fenerbahce Ulker tell me that Caja Laboral is a professional basketball team with at least a semi-developed feel for maneuvering through a four-quartered basketball game without self destructing. Not much more. |
10 |
| 12 | Zalgiris (4-7; 12-9) |
LAST WEEK: Lost 70-61 at CSKA Moscow THIS WEEK: Thursday vs. Anadolu Efes It was heartening to watch Rimantas Kaukenas deliver one of his all-around I’ve been here before, kids 16 points, five boards and five assists with Zalgiris hemorrhaging from their starting line-up weekly. Not enough, though. |
12 |
| 13 | Alba Berlin (2-10; 6-16) |
LAST WEEK: Lost 82-58 at Panathinaikos THIS WEEK: Won 75-72 at Bamberg We’ve learned that only rarely does one have the opportunity to applaud Alba Berlin, so let’s make the most of it: Hey, Alba Berlin: well done, guys. You beat the winless Bambergians for a second time. And 23 assists on 31 field goals? Hey, that’s swell. See y’all next year, maybe? |
14 |
| 14 | Fenerbahçe Ülker (2-9; 6-15) |
LAST WEEK: Lost 87-67 at Caja Laboral THIS WEEK: Friday at Khimki Moscow I really thought this would have ended by now. The huge blowouts, the flat-footed defense and the no-footed box outs. But with losses of 39, 18, 9 and 20 in their last four, it’s clear that the Simone Pianigiani-less Fenerbahce Ulker club is just anxiously watching the last grains of sand fall through to the bottom. |
13 |
| 15 | Bamberg (0-12; 3-19) |
LAST WEEK: Lost 89-86 at Anadolu Efes THIS WEEK: Lost 75-72 vs. Alba Berlin Very disappointed in Bamberg, who ousted Partizan–the youngest, most underpaid hooligan of a hoops team you’ll ever see–to make it here and stink up the joint. Would Partizan have advanced? I don’t think so. But I’ll bet half of Djordje Gagic’s salary (18 bucks, couple pairs of sneakers?) that they would have snagged a couple of wins and given us some loud(er) overtimes. |
15 |
| 16 | Besiktas (0-11; 5-16) |
LAST WEEK: Lost 86-61 at Barcelona THIS WEEK: Friday vs. Montepaschi Siena I get to this part of the rankings every week and try to think of some newfangled way to say Besiktas sucks. Sometimes, though, I struggle to quantify the inferiority and just write until the space seems full. I’m still not quite sure which route I’ll go this week. |
16 |
(9-2; 14-7)Nick Gibson, editor of EuroleagueAdventures.com, covers Euroleague and other international basketball developments for SheridanHoops.com. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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