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Basketball » Euroleague (M), 8. round
05.12.2013. 19:30 Finished
Galatasaray - Unicaja Malaga (78:70)

Turks without Bonsu, Spaniards without Toolson

  • Published:

Galata's main center and one of Ergin Ataman's most important players, British Mensah Bonsu, is suspended for three games after a fistfight with Begić

The Turkish champions are ranked second in Group C with a 4-3 score, and are 99% certain to enter the Top 16, with Unicaja and Bayern breathing down their neck with a 3-4 score. Today's game will be a huge challenge, and a possible loss to Unicaja would most probably mean saying goodbye to ending up in one of the first two spots that still guarantee a somewhat easier draw in the Top 16 stage. A win would put Unicaja at 2-0 vs the Turkish team, who still have to play a home game vs Stelmet and an unpleasant away match vs the artificial Euroleague creation called Bayern München.

Galata decisively lost the match vs the European champions in Piraeus last week, but that game will likely have much more significant consequences. The Euroleague management in Barcelona have reported that Pops Mensah Bonsu will be punished for the brutal clash with the Olympiakos center Mirza Begić. The numerous apologies the Brit sent via Twitter did not help, the Euroleague have imposed a three game suspension as punishment, which is yet another blow to the already decimated Istanbul team. This means that coach Ataman is adding Bonsu to the list of those unavailable to him, along with the previously injured Jawai,
Gordon, Markoišvili and Ersan Dağli (Dudley).

After Dağli and Jawai were injured, Bonsu took over as their starting center. Now that he is gone as well, they will only have Furkan Aldemir, who will likely get a lot of time on court, while Mačvan and Erceg should be helping in defending the paint and controlling the rebounds. At 206 cm tall, Mačvan can play center, but the problem is that Unicaja have an extremely powerful lineup at that position, with Vazquez, Hettsheimeir and
Štimac, as well as Caner-Medley at power forward. The Spaniards can shift a large percent of their game to the tall line, which could slow this match down, easily making this into another trench battle. Perhaps not like the one Galata had vs Siena (54-52), but having in view the problems with the roster and the available rotation for this match, it will be extremely difficult.

Olympiakos have spent significant time preparing for defense on Arroyo, who shot 1/9 from the game. Calloway and Granger will surely pressure the key player of the Turkish team, and Galatasaray don't have much of an option without him. Relying on Sinan
Güler and Ender Arslan is definitely not a good idea vs such opponents, so it is no wonder Galata stayed at 54 points in their last two Euroleague matches.

The Spanish team played two excellent games last week, easily beating Stelmet in Poland and then Canarias in Malaga, in an even more decisive manner. In both games the team was led by Caner-Medley and Zoran Dragič, while Unicaja scored 84 and 88 points, which is what coach Plaza is looking for. There were plenty of reasons to be happy. Dragič (18 pts) was the only player with more than 21 minute on the court on Sunday, so there can be no talk of fatigue. The important numbers are 46-28 in rebounding and as many as 17 offensive rebounds. This counterbalanced the 19 turnovers they had, and as said before, they will surely use rebounding against the Turkish champions as well.

- These kinds of games, vs teams who score a lot and play a free-style game, are always particularly dangerous. However, we played well, aware of what we need to do. We just need to cut down on turnovers- said Sergi Vidal.

- The stakes will be high in Istanbul. We want to win, not just visit the Grand Bazaar. They are a very athletic team, and we have to do very well to win.

Jayson Granger suffered a minor injury vs Canarias, so he did not train on Monday, but was back on Tuesday, so his appearance is certain. Shooter Toolson did not play vs Canarias, as he got injured in Poland and will not play today. He will be replaced by Txemi Urtasun, finally healthy and ready to play his first minutes this season.

The 3-4 score does not mean Unicaja can relax, on the contrary. They have very hard games ahead of them, playing Bayern at home and Siena away.

- We all know we need two wins in the three remaining games, and we will try to get one in Istanbul. It will certainly not be as decisive as it was in Malaga, but even a minimal win can go a long way in allowing us to be calmer going forward - said Fran Vazquez.

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We need to get rid of the pressure and keep our minds on the court and the opponents. One can always do better, but we have a good dynamic going on both in ABC league and the Euroleague, and we need to continue along those lines.

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Home team total points (OT incl.) 74.5 tip: Under   Pedja16
Odds Stake Min. odds Last margin Bookmaker
1.85 5/10 1.65 72.5 Nordicbet
Galatasaray will be in big trouble tonight. Other than practically having secured their advancement into the next stage, and Unicaja coming much more motivated, the biggest news on the Turkish side is Bonsu not playing, after becoming their main power in the recent weeks, even more important than Arroyo. With him absent and four more players injured, they could once again be scoring very low results, so I am not surprised by their last two Euroleague games, in which they scored 54 points. They scored 57 with Bonsu vs Unicaja in Malaga. Perhaps they will not stay at only 50ish tonight, but I just don't see them scoring 75. Simply put, this team has no real center, no real guard, and once you deny Arroyo his perimeter shots, he is practically stopped. Plaza has Calloway and Granger to put pressure on Arroyo, and the Spaniards simply must go for the win here. They need to win two of the three remaining matches, and as they are meeting Bayern in Malaga and going to play Siena in Italy, this might be their best shot.
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