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Both teams under pressure after losing their first match of the season

Dijon coach disappointed with their defensive game against Cholet. Nancy almost turned the match against Nanterre around thanks to good defense. Last season's match here ended with Dijon winning 76-72

Dijon were defeated at Cholet in a season opener. It was a dire performance, they were particularly bad in defense, their usual strong point. Conceding 85 points is far too much for a team that lacks doesn't have great scorers. Dijon have had second best defense in the league and the preseason matches indicated they'll continue with the same.

The match itself was pretty close in the first half, but the events in the third period decided the winner. Dijon fell behind and were unable to catch up with Cholet, so the defeat was imminent. Furthermore, the home team had an excellent shooting average, negating Dijon's great 10/20 three-point shooting. Harris was Dijon's top scorer with 24, followed by TJ Campbell with 15 points and seven assists.

- We didn't score 75 points often last season, but rarely did we let in 85 (only three times). Cholet played smart, but we were constantly late in defense. This is not how we play, our defense has to win our matches - and we mustn't let our defense suffer - Borg was clear of his intentions.

Going into this game, they can be happy to have Ryley available as the paperwork has been cleared. However, a reason to worry is Harris' status - he got a personal leave for the birth of his second child and it remains unsure whether he will be back from the USA on time for the match.

Nancy haven't opened their season to their liking, either. To make things worse, they have lost at home, but against reigning champions, Nanterre. The champions look as a best team at the start of this season, as well. Nancy put themselves in hot water losing the second period by 10-23, thus ending the half with a 12 point deficit (26-38). However, they played much better in the second half, managed to equalize and take the game into overtime. That extra five minutes brought no happiness to Nancy - they played quite bad, scoring only two points, making their great second-half effort pointless.

The under-performer of the match was Nancy's star Paul Harris. He has showed a lot of quality in the preseason and much is expected of him, but he didn't score in this match, shooting 0/4 from play, collecting six rebounds. However, he played only 13 minutes.

- He simply was not in the match. We could have won this one if he played better. It took me a long time to find a line up that could win this match - head coach Weisz spoke, commenting on the final score:

- Considering everything that happened, this is a big disappointment.

Austin Nichols' performance has to be noted - he scored 21 points, while Pietrus had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. However, the lack of depth could pose a problem, as all the starters (except Harris) have played 39 minutes or more against Nanterre.

Bad results from the first round mean pressure for both teams to perform. Dijon are a defensively sound team, and coach Jean-Louis Borg will want them to play this match much better. On the other hand, Nancy had a difficult last season, so they want to avoid two defeats on the start of the new season. They look better in defense with signings of Pietrus and Falker, so the low scoring in the match against Nanterre comes as no surprise.

In the last season's match-ups, each team won their home game - Dijon won by 72-62 at home. Home court is an advantage for this match, too, but Nancy seem to have better players.

In the last three seasons these teams have met six times, and Dijon failed to score more than 74 points each time. Their first game of the season was rather unusual as both teams scored lots of points, and coach Berg wasn't satisfied with that performance. Run and gun basketball is not the style of play he prefers, and good offensive play doesn't really mean much to him if his teams concedes 85 points. Dijon are a team that rarely scores more than 70 points in a single game. Last year they played in the playoffs and only in 9 matches (they played 32 games in total) they scored more than 70 points. On the other side, Nancy were very efficient in the offense during pre-season and they improved their defense a lot since Pietrus joined them. In the two games he played Nancy conceded 68 (Strasbourg) and 72 (Nanterre, and that match went to overtime) points. In the game against Nanterre they were leading by 3 with just a couple of seconds left on the clock but then Nanterre's player intentionally missed the second free throw and they scored another two points after an offensive rebound. This is an important game for both teams as no one wants to start the season with two consecutive losses. Overall under is also a smart bet, but we need to keep in mind that Dijon scored 75 points against very offensive Cholet. I doubt they can repeat that performance against Nancy. They have a very solid defense and two main contenders for the title failed to score more than 70 points against them...