Thursday night's winner struck 15 times from behind the arc to come away with the victory
Three-point gulf lifted Fenerbahce and condemned Efes
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Regular Season
Round 2 of 34
Group Regular Season
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If you want to see a brief summary of Thursday night’s Istanbul derby between Anadolu Efes and Fenerbahce Beko, just watch the opening two possessions of the second half and the story of the night will be revealed.
Holding a nine-point lead after a dominant second quarter, Fenerbahce was up first. And the visiting team started smoothly, moving the ball with purpose and confidence to create an open look on the perimeter for Nigel Hayes-Davis, who perfectly executed a smooth shot for a three-point strike.
Then it was Efes’s turn, but the home team couldn’t find any space to penetrate Fenerbahce’s zone defense, eventually forcing Elijah Bryant to send up a hopeful prayer under pressure from the shot clock from way beyond the arc, and not getting close to sinking the basket.
Two three-point attempts – one success, one fail – and the game in a nutshell.
By that stage Efes had made just 2 of its 13 three-point attempts, while Fenerbahce had fired itself into a commanding lead by making 10-of-17 shots from beyond the arc. And the same pattern continued for the rest of the game.
Another illustration of the trend came with three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Efes was threatening to build serious momentum after tough inside baskets from Darius Thompson and Derek Willis were accompanied by a couple of defensive stops, reducing the deficit to single digits and raising the volume from the home fans in the all-new Basketball Development Center.
It could have been a turning point, but Bryant and then Thompson – after an offensive rebound – both missed open three-pointers, the air was sucked out of the arena and the Efes comeback attempt had self-destructed in its tracks.
Even so, the home team did eventually manage to rally and pulled back to tie the game, 74-74, with two minutes remaining… only for the most important gulf between the teams to reappear. First Jordan Nwora missed a long strike which would have given Efes the lead, then Marko Guduric went down the other end and converted Fener’s 14th triple of the night. Arturs Zagars promptly added the 15th on his team’s next possession, giving this three-point story its final sentence.
It was just as well that Fenerbahce was so accurate with its long-range shooting, because Saras Jasikevicius’s men had a terrible night closer to the basket, making only 12 of its 40 two-point attempts, with Wade Baldwin, Hayes-Davis and Khem Birch combining to miss 20 shots inside the arc.
But a three-point shooting conversion rate of 55.6% (15 of 27) can disguise a plethora of ills, especially when the opposition is only making 20% of its own long-range attempts (6 of 30).
And the Fenerbahce defense deserves a lot of credit for those low Efes numbers, with the zone D employed by Coach Jasikevicius succeeding in significantly slowing down the home team’s passing rhythm to force bad looks and tough shots. When Shane Larkin (1 of 6) and Bryant (1 of 4) are held to just two three-point conversions at a success rate of 20%, you know you’ve done a pretty good job.
And although Fenerbahce’s overall performance left plenty of room for improvement, there can be no complaints about the team’s shooting from deep – and the 45 points gained from three-point territory were ultimately enough to claim a crucial road win.