Freaknick’s Preview: Can the Mighty Mighty Barcelones KO the Champs?

By: Freaknick

Back-to-back 7-1 weeks have jumper-cabled my hopes for 100 wins before the playoffs (currently 95-37 for the season with three weeks left), but what hurts is those two losses both came at the hands of my nemesis, Maroussi. Will they foil me again?

GROUP E

Partizan (2-1) vs. Maroussi BC (2-1) – Teams that win ugly tend to lose even uglier. Case in point: Partizan Belgrade. After scrapping out the victory of the season against Barcelona, they went to Greece and couldn’t throw it in the Aegean Sea, going 18-61 from the field (29 percent). The 57 measly points Maroussi used to win were the lowest of any winning Euroleague team this season. A lightshow, it was not. But, good news out of Belgrade as Aleks Maric—the would-be index rating leader if he had enough games to qualify—will be back in action after the week off, which should take significant pressure off of guards Aleksander Rasic, Bo McCalebb and even Petar Bozic, who has been shooting far more than he should have to. Anyone who reads regularly (thanks, you two) should know my faith in Maroussi gets thinner each week, even as the wins add up. Partizan.

Panathinaikos (0-3) vs. Regal Barcelona (2-1) –Though The Mighty Mighty Barcelones have shown their weaknesses in the past few weeks in both the Euroleague and the ACB, they’ve rebounded nicely to capture the Copa del Rey  Continue Reading…