Basketball: domestic leagues

[Milos-BC]

^^ Even though changing the coach before the match may result in uncertainty in the team, I think it can also motivate them, and they will probably play much better than usual, as they need to prove themselves to the new coach

Now, I have to be honest and say that Zvezda has quite a good roster on the paper. Along with Cedevita, this is the team that most money was invested in order to create the team for this season of ABA League. But, only the paper, the play they are showing on the field is extremely bad, and they do not look like a team. It is like everyone plays for themselves. Basketball is a team sport and they look like cowboys on the field. You will see today what I am talking about, I watched every match of Zvezda this season (I was scouting our biggest rival ), and if I was the coach, I would know exactly what to do in order to stop them completely.



The biggest threat for you is Igor Rakorcevic. He is still a good player, but nowhere near as good as he used to be, I have to say. Well, one of the reasons for that is probably his age. But, MZT players must play a "plaster" on him during the whole match as is the brain of this team and the one who organizes everything, and in most cases he is finishing the attacks as well.

Another threat is Rasko Katic. He played in Partizan the last two seasons, and now he moved to Zvezda, because we didn't want him anymore. He is not extremely dominant on the position #5 but he is a very standard player and he creates the position for shooting under the basket very well. While most players have oscillations during the season, Rasko is quite standard.

Also, beware of Boris Savovic. This player is very good, although he is much worse in Zvezda than he used to be in Hemofarm (in the last season, when Hemofarm was practically shut down, Savovic was carrying the team by himself). He has problems when two players go for a duplication, and he often makes a mistake in steps, so this is something the MZT players must do whenever he has the possession of the ball. Also, he is one of the first candidates to make a foul on, as he has huge problems with free throws.

Aleksandar Cvetkovic, a young and very talented player who also plays for :rs national U21 team is one of the biggest talents of Serbian basketball, but this season he is quite mild. Keep an eye on him as well, but I don't think he will have a very extensive role in tonight's match.


MZT has a chance to beat Zvezda. If you enter the match without any respect and without fear of the name "Crvena Zvezda" (who basically doesn't even exist in basketball anymore, but anyway....), you are going to win. The MZT team has a huge number of offensive rebounds as far as I saw. That is also a key factor for a victory against Zvezda. They are playing without Elthon Brown and they fired Almond, two players that could've made a difference in a match like this (even though both of them didn't show anything, but their CV is very good when it comes to tough matches) and instead of them they added two junior players who aren't even among the best ones in their age as replacements. Good luck!

 

[Milos-BC]

I watched the match of MZT and Crvena Zvezda last night....

It is clear that MZT still didn't recover after the previous coach left and a lot of work needs to be done, as this play is way below the actual limits of this roster that I think is quite good. They played exactly like they shouldn't have to - a lot of unreasonable shots for 3 points, no play at all under the basket, no team play at all, bad defense, bad marcation.........also, a lot of unreasonable fouls and, generally, a bad selection of fouls as well. They musn't let a guest team to have 20 more free throws then themselves. They had to lower the number of fouls. At some points they were laying on Gecevski too much. With a complete change of play from individual to a team play, this team can do much better than this.

Zvezda is, imo, a terrible team. What they are showing has little to do with basketball. When you look at how much they invested in all this, and what they are showing on the field.......a disproportion is really huge. Even though MZT played badly they had a chance to beat them at least 2 or 3 times. If the players just "put the ball down" and tried to establish a play under the basket, and if they were doing some smashing in under their basket, they would've won the match. It was a huge mistake that, after they managed to tie the result after their lead of +11, they began to shoot for 3 points from completely unreasonable positions.......Zvezda was ridiculous in the 3rd half, they couldn't hit anything, and they were ready to lose. MZT returned them to life with their own mistakes.

MZT has a potential, but they need to change the play completely. I don't know if they always play like this, but this is not the right approach. This team is quite well composed and this is far from their maximum.

As for Zvezda, I can't wait for them to meet us in 2 weeks........if they continue playing like this, I think we will rape them heavily!

 

[aletem]

Yeah, old story for MZT. Hopefully the new coach will do some radical changes here and there. I want MZT to be the first team to beat Igokea.

 

[Milos-BC]

^^ When are you playing against Igokea exactly? They are a very positive surprise for me, and I can just say "well done". The heart of this team was kept for a couple of seasons and now they have improved a lot. However, I think their form is slowly falling and they will lose in one of the next matches for sure. Olimpija was close to beat them on Monday, they had a solid lead (+13), but they are still oscillating a lot, and in the end, Igokea managed to win the match somehow. I heard that Ilievski wanted to sign the contract with MZT but the club officials decided that he is not needed and signed Bakic instead........Bakic is not a bad player, but Ilievski is top-class, too bad you haven't signed him.

So far, the biggest disappointment for me is Cedevita. They are, on the paper, a #1 favorite of the league, and the play that they are showing is terrible. Similar to Crvena Zvezda. I think Sjor Boza is slowly losing the credits from the Cedevita management, but I hope that he is going to stay at least until 10th round and the duel with Partizan After we beat the, he is free to go




We are going to avenge you next Sunday, when Crvena Zvezda PORNO Diva (not Beograd Diva, they are porno diva ) comes to our field When they see black and white colors, and especially the man that f****d them heavily for 9 years, pants are falling down by themselves

And this is a proof of what I am saying - just listen to what Svetislav Pesic (their last season's coach) told them during this time-out 3

"Oni dadu kos, a vi skidate gace" 3 3 legendary

 

[aletem]

at the video! I don't know when, but soon enough. Ilievski actually plays for Cedevita, but doesn't seem to find himself there (last game didn't even score once :shock

 

[Milos-BC]

^^ Yeah, I know. He had an offer from Zvezda as well, but he rejected them, as he said he can never go to Zvezda as he was Partizan's player (our coach Dule Vujosevic created him as a player ) and he can't play for them so he thanked them for the offer and ended any potential negotiation. Ilievski grobar


Actually Cedevita plays terrible indeed, just like I said in the earlier post, and so far they are the biggest disappointment for me. A great team, that is the first favorite of the league, but no team play at all, and even this play they are playing is just terrible. I mean even Gelabale is totally lost there. I think the most responsible person for this is Boza Maljkovic. But, as I said, I hope he stays until Partizan beats them in the 10th round. They can fire him after that, if they feel they must But as I said, I think he is gulity that there is no chemistry in the team as well.

It's not strange that both Zvezda and Cedevita have strong rosters on the paper but both look terrible on the field. You can just see how everything is artificial in both teams. Zvezda was chucking away the money on all sides, they didn't have a clean vision of what they want. They were only thinking on attack when they were creating the roster for this season, they forgot that basketball is a game that is played in two directions, and they didn't think of defense at all. Partizan has the cheapest team in the history of Eurloleague this season and both Barcelona and CSKA barely managed to stay alive and win at the end of the match! That is a real selection.....

And it is already proven that they are working very badly with the players they are signing.

I think that even one Dwight Howard would have a negative index in Zvezda, and Kobe Bryant would have a 30% shot for 2 points In we call them "BC Next Season" because every time they end up in a long series of defeats they get to say "ok, this season we won't win any trophies, but NEXT SEASON is ours........" and each and every year we hear the same story, and the number of trophies they are winning is the same in the last 11 years - 0

"Da dovede i Lebrona
zauvek ce biti ona
KK Sledeca Sezona"

OJHA 3

 

[Milos-BC]

Partizan defeated Split in with 79:72!

Black and white machine is smashing all oponents that get in front of it in ABA league (ok, only Cibona managed to get away ). Split has a very tough home field and they haven't lost for 25 consecutive matches they were playing at home until this defeat from Partizan which just shows how tough they are when they play at home.

I expected a tough match, and even though we didn't play too well (it is a young team and oscillations are normal), we managed to score a very important victory, and also secure the first place on the table thanks to Igokea's loss from Cedevita. We were having many problems with Vujacic in their team (aged but still a master of this game) but, thanks to the great defense that we delivered, we managed to control him in the second part of the match, I am very, very happy with the performances of our team both in the ABA League and in the Euroleague, and I am always looking forward to the next match!

In the next round we are playing against Crvena Zvezda PORNO Diva (). This should be called "eternal derby", but it will be an "eternal training", so I expect this run of victories will continue after Sunday as well

The table:

#	Team	W	L	T	D
1	Partizan mt:s	6	1	13	58
2	Igokea	6	1	13	39
3	Cedevita	5	2	12	11
4	Cibona	4	3	11	16
5	Crvena zvezda BG DIVA	3	4	10	29
6	Budućnost VOLI	3	4	10	14
7	Radnički	3	4	10	6
8	Union Olimpija	3	4	10	3
9	Široki WWin	3	4	10	-4
10	Krka	3	4	10	-19
11	Split	3	4	10	-22
12	MZT Skopje Aerodrom	3	4	10	-28
13	Zadar	2	5	9	-20
14	Szolnoki Olaj	2	5	9	-83

 

[EmperorG]

you don't speak and about NBA here??

 

[aletem]

MZT Skopje - Cedevita 74:61 :shock: I didn't expect that to happen!

 

[Milos-BC]

^^ Congratulations on the victory I am glad that Pipan is fixing the broken things in the team and that everything is improving.

As for us, Partizan lost the derby from Crvena Zvezda with 92:78. OK, I said that we will watch a porn movie, and I guessed it correctly, but I only exchanged the roles, as we were the lead actors, not them

A deserved victory of Zvezda as they outplayed us completely. Rasko Katic was making little kids to our centers Gagic and Musli, and they were snubing from Elthon Brown like ping pong balls. They have improved their form a lot and they aren't the same team from the beginning of the season, while we fell psichically after a hard defeat from Brose Basket. Less then 48 hours simply isn't enough time to recharge, they were extremely motivated, while we we were pretty ball-less and that made the difference. Also, the first half was probably the best half they played in the last couple of years, and I doubt they can repeat that in the next matches, but we are also responsible for this, as we had no aggresive defense and no offensive jumpings, our two strongest weapons.

It is not terrible that we lost (with Dule, we tend to lose the first derby in the season and win all others), but we need to analyze this defeat and prepare much better for the the next derby in order to continue our domination in . We are still first on the table and that's what matters. We must focus on Union Olimpia now.


The only bad thing about Zvezda is the behavior of our ex-player Rasko Katic, and he was acting like a complete moron, like if he was playing against his eternal enemy and not against a club where the supporters always had understanding for him. But that speaks of him......

The table:

#	Team	W	L	T	D
1	Partizan mt:s	6	2	14	44
2	Igokea	6	2	14	38
3	Cedevita	5	3	13	-2
4	Crvena zvezda BG DIVA	4	4	12	43
5	Union Olimpija	4	4	12	23
6	Budućnost VOLI	4	4	12	20
7	Cibona	4	4	12	12
8	Radnički	4	4	12	10
9	Krka	4	4	12	-8
10	MZT Skopje Aerodrom	4	4	12	-15
11	Široki WWin	3	5	11	-10
12	Zadar	3	5	11	-19
13	Split	3	5	11	-33
14	Szolnoki Olaj	2	6	10	-103

 

[Milos-BC]

Partizan defeated Union Olimpija with 86:82. This was one of the hardest matches where we are playing as guests, and it was a very important victory. Even though we played almost ideal in the first two halfs, Olimpija didn't let us to increase the difference to 10+ . Thanks to the great role of Dylan Page and the aggressive defense, they were close to return to the match completely. However, thanks to the great strenigh of the spirit of our team, we didn't let this already-won match to slip through our hands. We now have a 7-2 score and the shared first position with Igokea which is awesome

In the next round we are playing against Cedevita who lost their coach as Boza Maljkovic decided to leave. In case we win this one as well, we will make another huge step towards ending on the first spot at the end of the regular part of ABA league.

The table:

#	Team	GP	W	L	Diff
1	Igokea	9	7	2	62
2	Partizan mt:s	9	7	2	48
3	Cedevita	9	6	3	3
4	Crvena zvezda BG DIVA	9	5	4	61
5	Budućnost VOLI	9	5	4	36
6	Radnički	9	5	4	24
7	Union Olimpija	9	4	5	19
8	Cibona	9	4	5	2
9	Split	9	4	5	-23
10	Krka	9	4	5	-26
11	MZT Skopje Aerodrom	9	4	5	-39
12	Široki WWin	9	3	6	-24
13	Zadar	9	3	6	-35
14	Szolnoki Olaj	9	2	7	-108

 

[Milos-BC]

Partizan defeated Cedevita with 58:55. This was a very hard match for watching and also for playing. A very tight match, a low number of points and because of this, both teams didn't play nice, but still it was a very important victory for us, as Cedevita is one of the biggest favorites of this league. Vlado Ilijevski solved the match with a technical mistake in the end (it can easily be seen how Ilijevski can't forget the club that created him as a player so that is why he did that maybe ) as well as Dragan Milosavljevic from our players.

I also need to congratulate Drew Gordon and Davis Bertans on their great performances, they are currently the most standard players of our team. Today we are playing against Igokea, so it is time to capture the first position after this derby

#	Team	GP	W	L	Diff
1	Igokea	10	8	2	66
2	Partizan mt:s	10	8	2	51
3	Crvena zvezda BG DIVA	10	6	4	69
4	Cedevita	10	6	4	0
5	Budućnost VOLI	11	6	5	36
6	Radnički	11	6	5	35
7	MZT Skopje Aerodrom	11	6	5	3
8	Krka	10	5	5	-23
9	Split	11	5	6	-58
10	Union Olimpija	10	4	6	16
11	Široki WWin	10	4	6	13
12	Cibona	10	4	6	-6
13	Zadar	11	3	8	-56
14	Szolnoki Olaj	11	2	9	-146

 

[aletem]

MZT smashed Szolnoki with 87-53!! Best game for MZT so far!

 

[Milos-BC]

^^ Congratulations! MZT improved their play a lot, which I knew that will happen because Pipan is a great coach.

In the next round MZT will play against Partizan I don't expect an easy job at all, but we just have to win after the debacle against Igokea last night.

 

[aletem]

^^ Congratulations! MZT improved their play a lot, which I knew that will happen because Pipan is a great coach.

In the next round MZT will play against Partizan I don't expect an easy job at all, but we just have to win after the debacle against Igokea last night.

Bad timing for MZT then. If it was the round after it, I would say MZT would have a good chance, but now, no chance I think. Oh, well, they have Krka at home afterwards, which is good.

 

[Milos-BC]

^^ I think MZT has a chance, as this season we got into all this without any experienced player and with an extremely young team (our oldest player is 26 ). Vujosevic's vision is that this current team of ours should stay together for a couple of seasons and then so that they develop like they should have, and then he will attack the 1st position in the Euroleague with it. This is, according to his words, the most talented generation that ever played in Partizan since the generation of Predrag Danilovic (currently the president of our club ) and Vlade Divac.

Currently, however, we only have a huge perspective, but we are inexperienced and we are not dominant like we used to be in the previous years. Oscillations are very often, and then it happens that we have a shot for the victory against two strongest teams of the Euroleague CSKA Moscow and Barcelona, to nail Buducnost in Moraca, but also to suffer debacles from Crvena Zvezda and Igokea. We can basically beat everyone, but also lose from everyone as well.

If MZT manages to control our offensive rebounds and if you manage to cope with a very aggressive defense we are playing, you will have a chance to beat us.

 

[aletem]

Partizan - MZT 68:58

Well that's not bad! Considering that MZT played a good first half, I am content with the result. MZT fans were awesome for once.

 

[Milos-BC]

^^ Yeah, MZT had a great opening of the match, and if they managed to keep the same rhythm, the match would've been more exciting, but this way when we got our play under the basket and when we began playing our aggressive defense, we were controlling most of the match. We were drained after a tough match with Barcelona and that is why I am not surprised that we entered so listlessly into the match. We often have these kind of oscillations when we can't score anything from any position and when we have quite confusing attacks without an idea of what to do. Then again, it is very normal for such extremely young team like us this season. But anyway, for me personally this was an important victory as we are now only 1 victory less than Igokea and if we win against Szolonoki in the next match as expected, we will end the first round of the ABA league with 10-3 score which is more than I wanted and predicted with such a young team!

MZT improved their game a lot as I expected and I think you are on a good run. It is too bad that your good run from the start of the season too was ruined, but Pipan is a very good coach and I believe you will have many things to celebrate if you keep this team together for some period I wish all the best to MZT in the next matches!

Here is a short video from the match:

and the current table:

#	Team	GP	W	L	Diff
1	Igokea	12	10	2	109
2	Partizan mt:s	12	9	3	38
3	Crvena zvezda BG DIVA	12	7	5	72
4	Budućnost VOLI	12	7	5	45
5	Radnički	12	7	5	44
6	Cedevita	12	7	5	10
7	Union Olimpija	12	6	6	24
8	MZT Skopje Aerodrom	12	6	6	-7
9	Cibona	12	5	7	-2
10	Krka	12	5	7	-62
11	Split	12	5	7	-67
12	Široki WWin	12	4	8	-2
13	Zadar	12	4	8	-38
14	Szolnoki Olaj	12	2	10	-164

 

[EmperorG]

Look over the highlights of the game NY Knicks - LA Lakers:
[video]http://www.nba.com/games/20121213/LALNYK/gameinfo.html[/video]

 

[aletem]

MZT made 3 in a row. Siroki - MZT 71:72!! And with a 3 pointer by Gecevski in the last seconds!

Look over the highlights of the game NY Knicks - LA Lakers:
[video]http://www.nba.com/games/20121213/LALNYK/gameinfo.html[/video]

Lakers suck this year!