Joel Freeland's team (Malaga) lost to Rudy's Real Madrid 90-76. But there was one point when they were about even and everyone in the Israeli hoops forum I'm reading was talking about Freeland being a wonderful player. They said he could do different things on offense (Dunk, shoot from mid range...) and one poster called him "a great promise that turned into a great player". They also said he's ready for the NBA "Right Now!".
Thanks for the highlights! I always wonder when I see the team's full name: is a Couguar a cross between a Cougar and a Jaguar? Batum coasting a bit on defense. Understandable if you're playing every minute and are the focus of everything on offense, but I hope he doesn't do an Uncle Cliffy on us.
The NBA owners can't prevent superteams from forming in the Euroleague/ACB: http://www.blazersedge.com/2011/11/16/2566079/aldrigde-might-join-rudy-sergio-in-real-madrid
Link to watch live online. http://www.firstrowsports.tv/watch/92228/1/watch-cska-moscow-vs-unicaja.html
Nic with his first meh game in the Euroleague, and his team got slaughtered: http://www.euroleague.net/main/results/showgame?pcode=KOH&gamecode=51
Kirilenko beasted! What is it for him about playing in/for Russia? He's back to the Kirilenko of 6 or 7 years ago who racked up five-by-fives. He got an insane "ranking" (Euro-PER) of 39. But beating that by one was Tony Parker, whose team is playing in the second-tier Euro competition, the Eurocup. His team beat Claver's (and soon to be Splitter's) Valencia.
Player of the game was Spanoulis - famous in the NBA for telling his coach on the Rockets, Jeff Van Gundy, that he was the Tracy McGrady of Europe. (Van Gundy replied something like "Yeah, well, we've got the REAL McGrady" and kept Spanoulis glued to the bench.) Spanoulis looking pretty McGrady-esque today. On a tangent: I love Olympiakos's kit. A lot of Euro teams have that "soccer"-inspired look of striped shirt but solid shorts. Why no NBA teams do that, I don't know.
Again, not Euroleague, but Nic had another nice game today against his old team Le Mans. Lost by only 2, but Batum had 24pts (9/15 FG, 3/6 3pt), 9reb, 3ast, 1stl, 1blk, 3to in 39mins. http://www.lnb.fr/fr/Pro-A/200009/Resultat-match/6224/Le-Mans-Nancy From what French I can understand (basically 0), Nic got a tech for flopping late in the game.
I followed that game a little (on the Gamecast type thing) and Nancy were down 11 and had to claw their way back into it. They tied it at 78 and then something weird happened and they lost 80-78. Unfortunately it's unlikely that any video footage exists - French Bball is very under-covered. (I like how assists are called "decisive passes")
Nic fouled out I believe. The links for this game were not working unfortunately, but this game was televised.
A couple of good resources: This guy keeps track of a lot of players whose rights are owned by NBA teams and puts up highlights. This Blog-type-thing reports on pretty much EVERY player whose rights...etc. (And boy, Ty Lawson and Austin Daye aren't having as much fun as they probably hoped.)
You gave away your secret sources. Those are both fantastic. I will spend a lot of time away from the board looking at them, so PapaG says to say thank you!
[video=youtube;lDE2wzz027w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDE2wzz027w[/video] o0 He broke Ibaka's knees on one move...
