A poker served between the championship and the Champions League to give substance to a season that has yet to define its contours.
Pallacanestro Trieste wins but isn’t convincing against Banco di Sardegna Sassari, bringing home maximum results with minimum effort.
Victory of the will which however confirms the impressions of a group that struggles tremendously to find continuity over the course of forty minutes, living on tears and broken inertia. Once again, in a moment of need, it was pure talent that made up for the structural deficiencies of a team that, at the end of the third quarter, found itself dangerously with its back against the wall.
Yet the conditions for an easier evening were all there, with a Dinamo arriving at the PalaTrieste in full emergency: only four foreigners on the scoresheet, the heavy absences of Marshall, Beliauskas and Johnson, and a Pullen who appeared to be a faded shadow of the decisive player we have come to know over the years. Despite this, Trieste found itself down 44-49 at the end of the third quarter, mired in a cumbersome maneuver that was unable to break the Sardinian resistance. Jahmi’us Ramsey then took the stage and turned the match around like a glove: his outbursts dragged the red and whites into a comeback. The 6/11 from three points in the final ten minutes after the 4/26 in the first three quarters gave a turning point to the match.
It is a fact that this is enough to move the rankings, but the impression remains intact that this group, in terms of expressed potential, could and should do much more. It’s a concept that needs to be taken into account, because the bar is about to rise sharply. On the horizon are Bcl’s trip to Tenerife and the subsequent European matches against Nymburk and Gran Canaria, without forgetting the quarter-final of the Italian Cup against Milan and a playoff sprint in the championship where every missed pass will be paid dearly.
In the satisfaction of having achieved a streak of four consecutive useful results for the first time in the season, he insinuates himself concern for Jeff Brooks’ condition. The winger finished the match against Banco di Sardegna regularly, giving the impression that everything was under control, but the blow suffered on Saturday evening was of such a magnitude that it did not leave one at peace.
His absence, in view of the trip to Tenerife, would weigh enormously on the tactical balance of the team. Nothing leaks out from the company, a modus operandi that we now know well and which turns every eve into a little detective story. At this point, we will only find out whether Brooks is well or not on Wednesday evening, when the team takes to the Spanish court.
In Spain the two leaders of the group will face each other: Trieste, fresh from the defeat of Las Palmas, Tenerife, thanks to the success against Nymburk and strengthened by ACB’s battle against Barcelona. A match that puts the top of the table at stake and that Israel Gonzalez’s team, by virtue of the away success in their debut match against Gran Canaria, can truly face it with nothing to lose.
