Out of 12 games in this opening week, 10 were won by home teams, with only Panathinaikos Athens and Armani Jeans Milano able to survive on the road. Likewise, 10 of the 12 games were won by the supposed favorites, with Milano and Union Olimpija Ljubljana standing out as exceptions. Finally, the same number of games, 10, were won by a double-digit margins, here again with Olimpija as well as Khimki Moscow Region differing from the rest.

Montepaschi likes openers

Montepaschi Siena's 32-point win over Cholet, 76-44, was nothing but routine for the Italian powerhouse. In four season openers since its return to the Euroleague in 2007, the team from Tuscany smashed its opponents three times. It started with an 80-52 win over Olimpija Ljubljana in 2007, followed by a 45-point victory, 40-85, in Zagreb last year. In between came a nine-point win over Prokom that fit the pattern of Montepaschi in debuts. Now, it was Cholet's bad timing to meet Montepaschi in the opener. In all its Euroleague history, counting eight seasons, the Italian champs lost their opening game just once, on the road against CSKA Moscow.

CSKA speaks Italian

Speaking of CSKA, this week we saw the Russian champs drop a game in Moscow to another Italian team — Armani Jeans Milano — in perhaps the biggest upset of the week. Or was it? Recent history shows that CSKA fans are used to seeing Italian opponents first each season — and the memories are not necessarily good. In the past eight seasons, CSKA's only home opponer against a non-Italian opponent was in 2006, a victory over Aris of Greece, right after having played the first week on the road in...Napoli, Italy. In all its other home openers since 2003, it was CSKA vs. Italy. Montepaschi, Benetton Treviso, Milano and Lottomatica Roma visited the Russian capital first during those years — some more than once — and the record is pretty balanced, as CSKA has won four times and lost three, including the last two. Considering one of the wins was a single-point victory over Benetton in 2004, when CSKA went on to record the Euroleague's best record ever, the balance is pretty equal. As such, the Milano win wasn't that surprising after all.

Quick comfort

You would think that new players would need time to find a comfort zone inside their new clubs, but the first week of Turkish Airlines Euroleague play belies that assumption. On almost half of the teams, this week's top scorer was also an off-season addition. Vassilis Spanoulis (Olympiacos) and Brad Newley (Lietuvos Rytas) co-led their teams in scoring with another player, but nine more newcomers enjoyed exclusivity. Oleksiy Pecherov (Milano), Jamont Gordon (CSKA), Kevinn Pinkney (Olimpija), Darjus Lavrinovic (Fenerbache Ulker), Brian Greene (Charleroi), Charles Smith (Virtus), Kyle Hines (Brose), David Logan (Caja Laboral) and J.R. Giddens (Prokom) all led their teams in the points column, showing that they feel at home already in the first week of the season.

Three-point progress

Due to new rules, a three-point shot is longer this season — by one-half meter, 6.25 meters to 6.75 at its furthest distance — than before. One week is certainly not enough to make clear-cut conclusions, but it surely can provide a snapshot. In Week 1 of the regular season a year ago, Euroleague teams combined to make 164 three-pointers at an accuracy rate of 31.6%. Despite the longer shot this week, the total was virtually the same (163) and accuracy even better (34.3%). The better accuracy was a result of fewer shot attempts, 37 fewer to be exact, which makes sense as the new distance is more intimidating for some players. No less interesting is the fact that more teams sank three-pointers in bunches this year. In 2009's opening week, only two teams collected at least 10 three-pointers, while five teams did so this week at the longer distance. Five others struggled, however, making only 3 of the long-range shots each. Probably the most telling effect of the longer shot is that 75% of the winning teams this week ranked in the upper half in termas of three-pointers attempted. A majority of the teams that were more reluctant to take longer three-pointers lost.

Beating the pressure

The double-overtime victory by Union Olimpija at home in Ljubljana on Wednesday obviously stands out as a highlight of Week 1. And if you followed closely, you saw not only a great and thrilling game but also unique late-game execution. Normally, when the pressure is on, shooting percentages drop, something that stands out even more when speaking of foul shots. Yet, Olimpija and Efes were made of tougher material on Wednesday night. In both overtimes, Efes was perfect from the foul line, hitting 10 of 10 attempts. Meanwhile, Olimpija missed its first free throw in overtime, but then reeled off 11 straight hits. Two overtimes don't happen every day, but a total of 21 out of 22 free throws by both teams after regulation time is a rarity hard to witness at any level of basketball.

Cluster scoring

BC Khimki survived three rounds of qualifying to make it to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Regular Season and opened up this week with an 82-76 win over Asseco Prokom. The way Khimki won deserves a second look. It's not very common that a team has six scorers in double-digits. In Khimki's case, those six players scored almost everything for the team. Sergey Monya is the only player in Khimki who scored without reaching double-digits, finishing with seven points. Four other players who were on the court for 38 minutes — almost an entire game for one of the five positions on court — didn't score a point and focused on helping their teammates do so. Another fact worth mentioning stat is that all of the seven Khimki players who scored reached a double-digit in performance index rating, which is also unusual.
POSTED BY
Yarone Arbel — Israel