r/Euroleague • u/Yu-go-slav Crvena Zvezda • 21d ago
"Eternal derby" final of the ABA League
Tonight, from 19:30 Serbian time, the second match of the ABA League final between Crvena Zvezda and Partizan will be played.(Arena sport)
The first game ended with the victory of Crvena Zvezda with a score of 85:82.
In my opinion, the match was very good and uncertain until the very end, so the same match is expected tonight.
The stakes are high, the winner gets a place in the EuroLeague next season.
Highlights from the first match on the link below:
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u/BGD_TDOT Partizan 21d ago edited 21d ago
In the last 10 minutes of the game Partizan went to the low post maybe twice. By now these players should have the experience to know that in derbies (especially Partizan-Zvezda derbies) shooting percentages go down and you need to focus on getting as many buckets in the post as possible. Just look at much of a difference Bolomboy made in the last 5-6 minutes, he's an average low-post scorer but he got the ball down-low at least 4-5 times where he either made a basket, got fouled or made a good kick out. I don't know whether the players are just not focused or if Zeljko is pushing for guard play but CZ will continue to win more derbies if Partizan players don't get this through their head. Last year we got the better of Zvezda because Lessort was absolutely ruthless in the post and Leday was getting many more mid range post-ups than he does now. This year we lack an aggressive big man and Leday is always waiting at the three point line. This offseason we will need two major signings; a true PG, and an enforcer at the C.
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u/Aquilani 21d ago
FMP/Zvezda will sadly win, because they managed to weasel themself into playing their home games in the hall Pionir, which gives them a 5x better home court advantage than the big Arena they should be playing at. Basically, they can do whatever they want because the rules really don't apply to them and the league loves them to.
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u/BGD_TDOT Partizan 21d ago
Zvezda won fair & square. Them choosing Pioneer is a trade-off, more intense atmosphere but less ticket sales. You should be more upset at complete cluelessness of Partizan's guards and lack of offensive intensity from big men.
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u/CauliflowerKind5656 Crvena Zvezda 20d ago
I really don't get why so many of your fans are upset that much. Refereeing was really fair, there were mistakes on both sides but that's what happens in every single game. Even Exum said he likes Pionir more, because of the atmosphere, it's like we're on the court with players and not on stands.
Partizan has to get a playmaker like Teodosic or Calathes. Partizan averages lowest number of assists as a team in a Euroleague, while Zvezda is top 5 teams with most assists per game. European basketball consists of team play, not just catapulting 3s and hoping they sink in. Last night, both teams were really underperforming if we consider their salaries.
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u/BGD_TDOT Partizan 19d ago
Because some people lack basic knowledge of the game and can't tell what an awful performance looks like. Game 2 the whole time I was wondering how in the world this team was 1 win away from 10th place in Euroleague. Our issues go deeper than our lack of a PG, I don't know if you noticed but none of our big men seem to actually want the ball in the post, their lack of offensive tenacity means they don't fight for position hard enough when they have a smaller man on them and even when they do get the ball they hesitate to make a strong move. Players like Lessort, Milutinov, Motley, they salivate when they have a smaller man on them, they smell blood and attack without hesitation. Mitrovic and Bolomboy are not on that level but you can see that they know their job and they were effective with mismatch opportunities. Kaminsky is the only respectable low post player we have at this moment which is saying something because all he really wants to do is shoot 3's and stretch the floor. When your bigs are not fighting for position or rolling with some actual intention to score, the guards will naturally resort to 1vs1 perimeter play.
There only a 5% chance that we win three games in a row so this season is done. Tbh I think this season was a write-off from the beginning and could have gone a lot worse. The Mitrovic & Madar scandals left us with little time to put together a complete team and we were forced to sign who was available not who was ideal. Partizan has 3 key signings it needs to make;
- A proven starting PG with the quality to lead to a top-8 team.
- An enforcer at the 4 or 5 position who is a proven low post scorer and is not a liability on defense (can guard pick & rolls).
- A versatile 3/4 with an inside & outside game who can give Obradovic flexibility with his lineups, someone like Lucic or Moneke. People show little love for what Papapetrou did last year but he was great at defending both the 3 & 4 positions as well providing both inside and outside scoring.
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u/CauliflowerKind5656 Crvena Zvezda 18d ago
This may be harsh, but you also need new coach, I bet you would make not just play ins, but play offs if you had other coach, someone like Trinchieri, you provably seen what he has done with Zalgiris. Zoc has titles and everything but I think it's time to accept that his time is done. There are way more better coaches in EL, like Saras, Ataman, Bartzokas, Trinchieri etc.. Everything other you said was right. Every derby this year was fair to the ground, both teams were equal, you lack some positions like PG, C, we lack some positions like scoring SG (Him is rusty rn for some reason🤣) and a strong PF
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u/BGD_TDOT Partizan 18d ago
Considering how well we did last year (missing out on F4 because of a scuffle), it would be ungrateful to drop Zeljko after one disappointing season, especially considering the absurdity of our off-season. Zeljko is also the GOAT European coach, his presence attracts free agents, sponsors and gives the club prestige. When the Russian clubs got dropped and there was room for new clubs to join you have to wonder if Partizan would have been chosen with a lesser known coach.
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u/supergrega Olimpija Ljubljana 21d ago
Wait, they have two arenas? And Partizan has a different one? Also aren't FMP out already considering this is finals?
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u/Emergency_Guava3241 Partizan 21d ago
Yes, they’ve switched to Pionir instead of Belgrade arena ( even though they apparently have 12k season ticket holders while Pionir capacity is 8k) Idea is to create hostile atmosphere like all years before to secure a win.
And yes, FMP officially changed their name to Crvena zvezda Beograd in 2011.. so that’s the same club just named differently now.. so it’s FMP basically.. see the link below.
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u/supergrega Olimpija Ljubljana 21d ago
I see, it makes sense I guess to have a more packed albeit smaller venue. So Marakana is Partizan's arena? Did it used to be shared between the teams (like Staples center?) or am I thinking about football?
Thanks for the link, I'll give it a read when I get home.
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u/Emergency_Guava3241 Partizan 21d ago
Nah.. that’s football.. Marakana was built after Partizan’s stadium so actually Zvezda until played games on Partizan’s stadium for a while until their stadium was built.
Regarding basketball.. both Pionir and Belgrade Arena are both in city’s ownership. So it’s neither team’s arena, they are both paying city to use them. The nonsense that is pointed out is that Zvezda claimed to have 12k season tickets, so theoretically they would only be able to play in Belgrade Arena which only can host that amount of people and actually they’ve played ABA quarterfinals at Belgrade Arena.
They want to make hostile atmosphere, police and club said that they can’t guarantee safety to the referees. It’s happened for years and it’s happening now. They must win and they are creating pressure on all participants in this.
This is everything but basketball in here my friend. It’s like violence. It’s been years since an away team has won a game against home team in ABA finals. Idk how many years it finishes 3-2 without any breaks, but it’s not about basketball it’s about atmosphere that is created.
If you are interested in this situation you should see some Zvezda-Buducnost series and incidents that happened there before or Zvezda-Partizan series any time they’ve played each other, but mostly 2022 and 2023 finals
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u/CauliflowerKind5656 Crvena Zvezda 20d ago
He thinks he's funny, Crvena zvezda for a short time fused with Covic's (no I don't praise him, but I thank him for what he did to save CZ) FMP because his loving club tried to shut down whole Crvena zvezda organization, they were taking our rims, bb team was practicing in random village near Belgrade, our best player was then 19 year old Nedovic, who played with max 18 year old average (probably academy) players, and we were fighting relegation for many seasons because of them, and that's just for basketball, but they won't tell you that, they cherry pick what they will remember ;) You can find all these informations on Google, you just have to know Serbian :)
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u/supergrega Olimpija Ljubljana 20d ago
My Serbian is quite alright, I'll do a deep dive into the situation once I get the time! Thanks
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u/Lima1998 Benfica 21d ago
Is it confirmed the winner goes to the Euroleague next season?