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Planinic's form is a worry for Mahmuti

Fener scored 61 in the second half of the Budivelnik game, and before that 100 at Mersin. Yet Kleiza is out today, and Onan is questionable.

After three wins in the Turkish Cup, a home loss to Oklahoma, a convincing away win at Mersin and a victory in Ukraine against Budivelnik, Obradovic's Fener are hosting their big city rivals at their Fenerbahce Ülker Arena. This is their first official home game. Another derby at an early stage of the Turkish league, and the second one in Istanbul today. Basketball fans in the city on the Bosporus will surely have fun today.

Fener played an excellent game last weekend at Mersin. They scored 56 points already before the halftime, with Bogdanovic scoring 18 in the first quarter, and Obradovic getting a qualty contribution from everyone. Linas Kleiza has been suspended for two games in Turkey, so he's out today, but if Nemanja Bjelica repeats his performances from Mersin and Kiev, Kleiza's absence won't be felt. The Serbian national team player came back after missing the Oklahoma game and two cup games due to injury. In Mersin he scored 15 points (6 of 7 from the field), 9 rebounds and 3 assists in only 22 minutes. In Kiev he scored 11 in 25 minutes, with 6 rebounds, shooting 3 of 7 from the field.

- We played a very good game, with support from our fans. As we had a big lead, I tried to give a chance to all players - Obradovic was satisfied after their first league win.

They were missing the injured Ömer Onan, Iker Karaman and Oguz Savas, who also all missed the Budivelnik game, where Linas Kleiza did play as one of ten players to score in double figures. Bogdanovic scored the most, as usual, 21 points in 33 minutes on the court. No one played more than the Croatian national team player. They were down 5-6 points in the third quarter, but they won the final period with a rarely seen score of 31-7. Fener scored 61 points in the second half.

It's interesting to note that Obradovic started the game with the young Kenan Sipahi at point guard and Mahmutoğlu at shooting guard, with Bogdanovic, Bjelica and Vidmar. This can be explained by the fact that Obradovic has to consider the Turkish league, where two Turkish players have to be on the court all the time. Later McCalebb played more than 25 minutes, but Sipahi's 16 are a proof that Obradovic trusts the young player.

The players out today will include Kleiza, Karaman and Savas, while captain Ömer Onan is still questionable. He's back to practicing, so he might get a few minutes today. The way Melih Mahmutoğlu is playing, Onan's absence is hardly felt at all. Fener is already looking as a powerful offensive machine, hard to stop, and Efes will have huge problems.

It's hard to explain what happened to Efes last weekend, in another Istanbul derby. They lost 85-67 to champion Galatasaray, and it could have been worse, hadn't the opponents rested some players in the final quarter, so Efes won that part 27-17. Even coach Mahmuti couldn't explain it:

- We let them get into their shooting rhythm too easily, and afterwards we couldn't find balance between defense and offense.

They lost the first period 27-13, and there was no way back after that. The defense failed completely, Galatasaray had a wild shooting day (16 of 31 for three points), and that was the game's main point. On the other side Planinic and Savanovic had a combined 0 of 10 for three points. Planinic was limited to 4 points in 29 minutes (2 of 10), and without a proper contribution from him Efes can't beat a good team. Since Galatasaray had 64% for two points and 52% for three, it's no wonder that Efes had an advantage on the offensive boards by 10-3, but that had little impact on the outcome. 

During the week they played a much better game, hosting Armani in the Euroleague opener and winning 87-67. Savanovic was the key player  (22p, 9 of 17), Planinic was missing again (0 of 3), and Scotty Hopson followed Savanovic with 22 points. The game also marked the debut of Tadija Dragicevic, the power forward who was acquired to replace the injured Kerem Gönlūm and help Savanovic. Gönlūm will be out again today, and the matchup between Savanovic and Bjelica will be an interesting aspect of the derby. So will be the duels between Vasileiadis (pictured in Bilbao jersey) and Bogdanovic, Planinic and McCalebb...

Planinic's form and a shorter rotation are reasons for Mahmuti's worries, while Fener will enjoy a huge support of over 10000 fans.

Obradovic has turned Fener into a killing machine. They scored 100 against Mersin at the start of this season, then 102 in Kiev (61 in the second half). Their defense isn't at a top level, which is not surprising as they are missing important players (Onan and Karaman). They are hosting a team without the width that they have, but Efes can wreak havoc in offense. Savanovic is stronger than Bjelica, Planinic is better than McCalebb in certain aspects, and we can expect better performance from him than last week, when he wasn't his usual self. Both teams have usually gone over this margin, and I don't see this as a low-scoring event. Not with this Fener and the game they showed at the start.