For the third game in a row, coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos's team scored 73 points – 9.5 below its average (82.5)
Everybody did their bit as Crvena Zvezda won again, despite its stuttering offense
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Regular Season
Round 25 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Nothing was going to compare to the emotion that the Belgrade brings for Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade, which always made its Round 25 game against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne a potential banana skin.
The early going showed just that, with ASVEL taking the first lead of the game and holding the advantage for the majority of the opening quarter as Joffrey Lauvergne, Paris Lee and Ben Bentil combined for 16 of their team’s 18 first-quarter points. Yet, a pair of free throws by Yago dos Santos gave Zvezda a 19-18 lead after 10 minutes – and it never trailed again.
What was the most impressive is that everybody did their bit. At halftime, 11 of the 12 Zvezda players that stepped onto the floor had scored at least 1 point, with Yago and Ognjen Dobric leading the way on 5 points apiece. By the end of the third quarter, seven players had 5 points or more, paced by Isaiah Canaan on 8. And come the final buzzer, the number of players with 5 or more points had risen to nine, with Canaan having netted a team-high 11.
That team effort was something that certainly paid dividends, particularly as the team's offense is not exactly firing on all cylinders at present. What's more, Zvezda as a team finished with 8 steals on the night, the joint fourth most it has managed in a game this season, yet it was the defensive hustle that it showed time and time again that really epitomized its eventual 73-66 win over ASVEL.
“It was a team victory,” Canaan told EuroLeague TV afterward. “Everybody played defense, everybody stepped up on the defensive end, and that’s what Coach [Ioannis Sfairopoulos] has been preaching all week and for the rest of the season: defense will win us games. We’ll figure it out offensively.”
Curiously, Zvezda scored 73 points for the third game in a row, yet it still averages 82.5 points per night, which goes to show what its offense can do when things are going well.
Still, the Serbian side now has back-to-back wins – against Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade and ASVEL – and heads into Thursday’s game on the road at ALBA Berlin feeling good about itself, sitting in the top six of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings with a 15-10 record.