7DAYS Eurocup This Week: Streaking teams aim high

Whether they’ve won all their games so far or just a couple, several teams that are streaking early in the 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season can start putting their eyes on the prize of a Top 16 berth if they keep winning.

First chances to qualify

Two undefeated teams will have their first chances to clinch a Top 16 spot in Round 6 on Wednesday and thereby become early qualifiers for the next phase of the 7DAYS EuroCup. The first one is a Group C leader Virtus Segafredo Bologna (5-0) which welcomes Lietkabelis Panevezys (1-5) to Italy. A win would lift Virtus to 6-0 and give it a five-win cushion over Lietkabelis with four games to go, good enough for Virtus’s place in the next phase. Another team with a chance to qualify for the Top 16 is Group A leader Joventut Badalona (5-0), who visits Partizan NIS Belgrade (2-3). Joventut came from behind to down Partizan 85-82 in their season opener A win now in the Serbian capital would give Joventut a sweep over Partizan and a guaranteed place in the Top 16.

Extending winning streaks

A Group B clash between Boulogne Metropolitans 92 (3-2) and Unicaja Malaga (4-1) is a battle of two hot teams, each on a three-game winning streak. Unicaja had six double-digit scorers in its 96-88 home win between them in Round 1. This game will mark a return of playmaker Jaime Fernandez, who average 9.1 points and 4.6 assists last season, and now has recovered from an off-season foot surgery. Another win would all but qualify Unicaja for the Top 16. Metropolitans opened the season with two defeats but has since strung together three wins. Keeping this streak alive would lift the team into a share of the Group B lead and inch the team closer to the Top 16. Metropolitans, however, will have to do it without its leading scorer Rob Gray (14.5 ppg.), who has left the team and joined AS Monaco. Another team that is on a three-game winning streak is Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (4-1) which travels to face Telenet Giants Antwerp (0-5) in Group C. Similar to Unicaja, Lokomotiv would all but qualify for the Top 16 if its win streak reaches four games.

Can Bourg deliver at home?

JL Bourg en Bresse (2-1) impressed in its two road games so far. In its EuroCup debut it dropped 99 points on the road at Bahcesehir Koleji Istanbul (0-5), and last week it scored 57 in the first half before beating Partizan NIS Belgrade 76-89 in the Serbian capital. In those two games, Bourg made 45.6% of its three-point shots, the best in the competition away from home. Now, Bourg will try to deliver on its home floor, too. In its lone home game so far, Bourg suffered a 77-84 defeat against Joventut. In that game, it made just 9 of 26 three-point shots and had almost as many turnovers (14) as assists (15). Bourg big man Pierre Pelos, last week’s MVP, is one of the players who has delivered hugely in the two road wins, in which he averaged 21.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 27.0 performance index rating. Now he will try to do the same at home, where he posted 9 points and 3 rebounds for a PIR of 5 against Joventut.

Group D

There was no action in Group D last week due to COVID-19 issues, but when teams return to the floor this week it will be interesting to see if couple of them can continue positive trends. Dolomiti Energia Trento (4-0), one of three unbeaten teams so far, will have a chance to stay perfect when it welcomes winless newcomer Frutti Extra Bursaspor (0-3). Meanwhile, Promitheas (2-2) has been solid since opening the season with two loses. Promitheas guard Ian Miller, who ranks second in the EuroCup with 19.3 points per game, delivered 27 points on 5-for-10 three-point shooting in a Round 1 home loss to Herbalife Gran Canaria (3-1). Now, as Promitheas travels to the Canary Islands, he has new backcourt partners in Vangelis Mantzaris and Nikola Radicevic, who have combined to average 13.0 assists in the two victories since they joined Promitheas.

Milestones coming up

For the former champion Lokomotiv, this will be game number 126 in the competition, which will mean a tie for eighth place all-time with Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade. In addition, Lokomotiv is 39 points shy of reaching 10,000 scored in the competition, good for ninth place on the all-time charts. Fellow Russian side UNICS Kazan (2-2), the all-time leader in both games played and scoring, is set to appear in its 212th game when it hosts Umana Reyer Venice (2-2) in Group A this week. With its first point in that game, UNICS will be become the first club in EuroCup history to reach 17,000 points. UNICS sharpshooter Jamar Smith is closing in on the competition’s three-point shooting record. Smith needs just three more triples to catch Rafa Martinez, who is the all-time leader with 223 triples made.