Laso at Efes: Rocky Start & Challenges

He Ephesus It does not advance positions but quite the opposite. The boost that was intended with the signing of Pablo Laso, without a team since he left Baskonia in the summer, is not such at the moment. The project had started with Igor Kokoskov and was soon classified as a failure, as happened with the Suns or Fenerbahçe. It didn’t even make it to December. In those, the Vitorian coach assumed the job of main coach and achieved a first success in Kaunas against Zalgiris, an unbeatable presentation in the Euroleague although the real debut was made in the Turkish league. Since that moment, benefits have dropped alarmingly.

Now there are four consecutive defeats in the top European competition. One was as a visitor in Villeurbanne, but the worst thing is that the other three have occurred playing at home. Dubai Basketball, Red Star and, this Wednesday, Paris. At the Turkcell Basketball Development Center the match with the French ended with a score of 79-84. A walk through the catacombs that those from Istanbul are taking, who have only won six games. On the first day of the second round they are tied on balance with the worst teams in the tournament: they are Partizan, ASVEL, Baskonia and them. Unflattering data.

He Paris Try to escape from that hot zone with matches of this style. With their recognizable imprint, a street runner’s basketball in which physicality prevails in defense and attack, with constant changes so that the rival does not hunt them, with which they have triumphed up to seven times. And with a much worse squad than the one that surprised everyone last season. Shorts, Jantunen, Ward and even the coach, Splitter, left. Hifi has remained the leader and this was seen in Turkish lands, where he offered another master class of joyful offensive basketball that earned the team victory. Once again they are the French team, ignoring Monaco, with a more florid performance.

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Balanced match until the final stretch. With five minutes remaining, Osmani hit the three-pointer and the margin in favor of Efes widened to five points.. Hope died there. They went 5:08 without scoring. Too much for a game ending. Justin Robinson scored five points and Nadir Hifi scored half the sentence with the triple that followed. Many hardships for the two-time European champion.

Losses count a lot

Laso has not yet found the key to reactivate this team, which has explosive players like Cordinier or Dozier, foreigners who are testing the League like Swider and Jones, veteran scorers like Beaubois or Loyd, and a recent signing, Saben Lee, from Olympiacos. “The mistakes we are making are killing us”said the Spaniard about that bad end to the match. On occasions like these it would have been great to have Shane Larkin on the outside or Vincent Poirier on the inside, two of those absences that have been undermining Anadolu Efes’ competitiveness in recent weeks.

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