The bond between Panathinaikos OPAP Athens forward Okaro White and Coach Dimitris Priftis is quite strong. This season marks the third time they have worked together and they've done so at three different clubs.  

Okaro White, Panathinaikos: 'Coach Priftis is like family'

In the world of basketball, it is common to find a player and coach who enjoy a special bond. Many times when head coaches switch jobs, they may reach out to former players to join them at their new club.

The bond between Panathinaikos OPAP Athens forward Okaro White and Coach Dimitris Priftis is even stronger, as the former explained: "Coach Priftis is everything to me. Yes, he's my coach, but he's more like family."

This season marks the third in which the two have worked together. Priftis first recruited White to Greece to play for Aris Thessaloniki in 2015. They reunited last season in Russia with UNICS Kazan and then came to Panathinaikos together over the summer.

The click between the two happened quickly, but it wasn't instant. In fact, White, who played his first professional season in Italy with Virtus Bologna in 2014-15, had a bit of a rough time when he first got to Aris.

“He’s a tactical guy… He studies the game and he’s a big brain of the game.”

"It was difficult because I wasn’t familiar with anything in Greece and I didn’t know none of the teammates that I was going to go play with," White recalled. "And then when I got there, [Priftis] was gone for a couple of weeks because he was with the national team."

Priftis soon returned from helping Greece to a fifth-place finish at EuroBasket 2015 and immediately went to work. His work ethic made quite an impression on White.

"From Day One, we were working. Working hard. We ended up having a good season, a really good season. I believe he coached great that year," White added.

Aris had a 10-6 record in the 7DAYS EuroCup and missed the elimination rounds on a tiebreaker. It had the third-best record in the Greek League regular season and took Panathinaikos the distance in the best-of-five playoff semifinals, too. White credits his coach for Aris's strong campaign.

“He’s a tactical guy," White explained. "He will study something, study something, break it down, break it down and come up with a full tactical gameplan. Okay, we might be on paper here [he points low] and they are here [higher], but with this gameplan, this is the successful gameplan to beat them or to have a chance to beat them. I really like that about him. He studies the game and he’s a big brain of the game.”

That summer, White returned to the United States and ended up signing to play for the Miami Heat in the NBA. Even so, his relationship with Priftis endured. They would talk and text and when the latter visited the United States in the summers, they made a point to get together. White decided that if he ever came back to play in Europe again, he would try to play for Priftis.

After a few more seasons in the NBA and the G-League, White decided the time had come for him to return to Europe. And it worked out just as planned: "Luckily, last year the opportunity presented itself and [UNICS] had an open position at my position. And I got to go play for him and we had a good year there, a very good year for the team."

Just how good of a year? UNICS reached the EuroCup Finals and in doing so clinched a ticket to this season's EuroLeague. White averaged 10.1 points and 5.4 rebounds. Then UNICS reached the VTB United League Finals, where it lost to CSKA Moscow.

When the season was over, Panathinaikos moved quickly to sign Priftis. A few weeks later, White affixed his signature to a deal to join Priftis in the Greek capital. White dod so not only because he thinks Priftis is an excellent coach, but because he respects him.

“That’s how it is in life, you gotta work hard to get what you want.”

"What he says is what it is. He can tell me one thing and I can trust his words on this thing. He is true. And he follows and he leads with his heart," White explained. “He leads with work ethic and he believes you’ve gotta work hard to get what you want. And that’s how it is in life, you gotta work hard to get what you want.”

White is optimistic – and realistic – about his first season in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. He understands that the expectations at Panathinaikos are always high. He also knows that with Priftis leading the way, great things are possible.

“I know what he’s going to do. He’s going to work his butt off so he can put the best possible team on the court. I have to do the same. And not just in practice, individually I have to be working outside of practice,” White said.

“They say the third time is the charm. It was a charm the first time and the second time, so hopefully it's another charm,” he summed up. “I hope we do the unthinkable this year.”

The bond between Panathinaikos OPAP Athens forward Okaro White and Coach Dimitris Priftis is quite strong. This season marks the third time they have worked together and they've done so at three different clubs.

At a press conference held at the magnificent Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona on Tuesday, Pau Gasol announced that his legendary playing career has come to an end.

Pau Gasol puts an end to historic playing career

Gasol, one of the most accomplished players in European basketball history, retired at the age of 41 after a professional career that spanned 23 seasons. In that time, Gasol stuffed his trophy case with a bevy to titles won with FC Barcelona, the Spanish national team and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Gasol grew up in the FC Barcelona youth system and after he made his debut with the first team, exploded to become a dominant player in the Spanish League almost overnight. In 2001, Gasol led Barca to the Spanish Copa del Rey and was named MVP of the tournament. He played in six EuroLeague games in 2000-01, during which he averaged 18.5 points and 6.0 rebounds to help Barcelona win its regular-season group. An injury kept Gasol out in the eighthfinals and Barcelona was eliminated. He was named to the All-EuroLeague Second Team for that season.

After that, Gasol was drafted by Memphis with the third overall pick in the NBA Draft. He was the NBA Rookie of the Year the following season, launching an 18-year career in America highlighted by back-to-back NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010. Gasol is a six-time NBA All-Star and was chosen to the All-NBA Team on four occasions. In addition to Memphis and Los Angeles, he also suited up for Chicago, San Antonio and Milwaukee. Gasol played in a total of 1,226 games and averaged 17.0 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in his career. His 20,894 career points are the second-most in NBA history among European players, behind only Dirk Nowitzki.

He returned to his boyhood club last season 20 years after he last played for Barcelona. Gasol averaged 4.6 points in seven games, helping Barcelona reach the EuroLeague Championship Game, which his team lost against Anadolu Efes Istanbul. Gasol and Barcelona then won the Spanish League as he put an end to a brilliant career.

Gasol was also a driving force in the Golden Generation of Spanish players that dominated international competitions in the first two decades of the century. He was the MVP of the 2006 Basketball World Cup in Japan, where Spain captured the crown for the first time. Under Gasol's leadership, Spain also won the EuroBasket three times (2009, 2011, 2015) and captured a pair of silver medals (2003, 2007) and two bronzes (2001, 2017). Gasol and the Spanish national team won Olympic silver medals at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, plus a bronze in Rio 2016. Gasol is the third-best scorer in the Men's Olympic Basketball Tournament history with 649 points, only trailing Oscar Schmidt (1,093) and Andrew Gaze (7899. He is also the EuroBasket's all-time leading scorer with 1,183 points. Along with his brother Marc, Pau runs the Gasol Foundation, which is dedicated to eradicating childhood obesity.

ALBA Berlin announced on Tuesday that starting shooting guard Marcus Eriksson will miss several weeks with a back injury. 

ALBA's Eriksson out with back injury

ALBA Berlin announced on Tuesday that starting shooting guard Marcus Eriksson will miss several weeks with a back injury. He was diagnosed with transverse process fractures on his left lumbar spine, which he suffered during the team's EuroLeague opener in Barcelona. Now in his third season with ALBA and sixth in the EuroLeague, Eriksson averaged a career-high 12.4 points on 44.3% three-point shooting last season. 

<center>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="de" dir="ltr">Das Verletzungspech bleibt uns treu. Marcus Eriksson hat sich beim Spiel in Barcelona Querfortsatzfrakturen an der linken Lendenwirbelsäule zugezogen und fällt mehrere Wochen aus. <br><br>Get well soon, Marcus! <a href="https://t.co/u9HsF5BFBG">pic.twitter.com/u9HsF5BFBG</a></p>&mdash; ALBA BERLIN (@albaberlin) <a href="https://twitter.com/albaberlin/status/1445380993242763280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Eriksson-003151.jpg

ALBA Berlin announced on Tuesday that starting shooting guard Marcus Eriksson will miss several weeks with a back injury.

Zenit St Petersburg head coach Xavi Pascual has been coaching in the EuroLeague for over a decade. Learn about his greatest influences and those he has impacted on his coaching journey.

Coaching fraternity: Xavi Pascual, Zenit St Petersburg

Influences are everything for elite head coaches. They grew up as basketball fans and students of the game. With or without playing backgrounds, all Turkish Airlines EuroLeague head coaches had mentors or were influenced by certain people to get where they are today, running teams in what is perhaps the richest competition in the world in terms of tactics. And many of them have left marks on their assistant coaches or former players who have gone on to pick up a whistle and a coaching board. 

Zenit St Petersburg head coach Xavi Pascual has been coaching in the EuroLeague for over a decade. His entry point was as an assistant coach to Dusko Ivanovic at FC Barcelona. Pascual soon took over the head coaching seat and kept it for eight years. He also coached Panathinaikos OPAP Athens before joining Zenit midway through the 2019-20 campaign. For Pascual, coaching is all about learning. Thinking that you possess all the basketball knowledge in the world is wrong, and you must remain humble and focused. 
 
"I am trying to learn from all the coaches, even from coaches with junior teams. One day, I am there, watching a game - and there's something I can learn! When I was young, at the beginning of my career, Aito [Garcia Reneses] was the coach in Barcelona, so in that period, Aito was my idol and I wanted to be like him," Pascual said.

"After every game, I try to realize what I did well, what I did wrong, what we can improve."

He said that his early mentors were coaches in Gava. Antoni Mercader taught him to love basketball and Agustin Cuesta taught him about discipline and details and how to work on those details every day. This is critical for Coach Pascual: the attention to detail that gives you an advantage required on a certain play to either get an easier basket or stop your opponent. Working for Ivanovic was also important for Pascual.  

"I think Ivanovic is one of the best coaches in the history of this competition and I learned a lot from him in all areas," Pascual said. Once he reached the elite level, Pascual knew he couldn't settle. "I try to be open. I try to be always in the moment. I am trying to improve from every single game that I watch on TV. After every game, I try to realize what I did well, what I did wrong, what we can improve or what we have to continue. I am trying to improve my basketball every day."

Pascual recalled a conversation he had with Cuesta that inspired him to become a head coach: "I was his assistant and we were talking about the next year and he said to me: 'no, you will not be my assistant.' I said 'why? why? what did I do wrong?'. He said: 'you didn't do anything wrong, but you are ready to be a head coach and I don't want to make you lose your time, so you have to be a head coach.'

"It was the moment that he pushed me to be a head coach. And from that moment, I started to build my career step by step, competition by competition, growing up."
 
Pascual referred to three influences at the highest level, though he added that it's not fair to stick with so few names. "I remember different moments in my basketball life, let's say when I was following [Ettore] Messina like crazy, when I was following Dusko [Ivanovic], when I was following Zeljko [Obradovic]... Aito, as I said before... I think when you follow the EuroLeague, all the coaches are at the highest level in Europe and you can improve some details from all of them, so it is difficult to say only some names because it would not be fair."

Several of Pascual's former assistants have followed in his footsteps. Oriol Pages, Chema Berrocal and Agusti Julbe were the first names of former assistants who became head coaches that came to mind for Pascual. 

"I think when you follow the EuroLeague, all the coaches are at the highest level in Europe and you can improve some details from all of them."

“I've also had a lot of players who became head coaches, so this makes me very happy. Like Joan Peñarroya, Jaka Lakovic, Victor Sada, Roger Grimau, Sarunas Jasikevicius..." Pascual said. 

Jasikevicius is now coaching Barcelona, while Lakovic (ratiopharm Ulm) and Peñarroya (Valencia Basket) are in the 7DAYS EuroCup. Pascual coached Peñarroya in the Spanish second division squad with Aracena in the 2003-04 season. Sada and Grimau are coaching youth teams in Barcelona and another former player, Boni Ndong, is the Senegalese national team's head coach and works for Denver of the NBA.
 
"I am very happy that he always said that part of his basketball is coming from me," Pascual said of Jasikevicius. "It makes me happy. It makes me feel honored. Now, as I said the previous season, I think he will be the coach who will be dominating this competition in the next years. He knows that I wish always the best for him. He has quality, he has talent, he has experience, so all the future is in front of him."

"For sure, I am using things that one day, another coach thought of before me."

Pascual said he believes that some of his players could stay in basketball and run teams in the future. Some of them have it in their genes, like Billy Baron, Sergey Karasev and Conner Frankamp, whose fathers were coaches. Jordan Mickey's father also played basketball. The first name he gave us, however, was not one of those.

"Shabazz [Napier], I think, he can be a coach. Also, Billy Baron and Sergey Karasev; they came from families of coaches and they have this knowledge inside and they probably can be. You never know what... also Conner is in the same situation, also Jordan Mickey is in the same situation, so you never know what is going to happen. But a lot of them, I think, can be coaches in the future and I hope that, during the season, they will learn something that, one day, they will show their players in the future."
 
In modern basketball, trying to innovate is complicated and this is why coaches get ideas from one another. "Every season, I am using different things and some of them came from other coaches. Also, I am very happy when I see some adjustments and some plays that other coaches are using from me," he admitted. "The EuroLeague is very rich in this and all the coaches, we are taking things from other coaches and this makes this competition amazing because nobody is afraid to do it and nobody feels shame to do it.
 
"For sure, I am using things that one day, another coach thought of before me," he said. "We are learning and we are using whatever we think can help us win."

The 2021-22 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season is underway. Here are five players we recommend this week.

EuroLeague Fantasy Challenge tips

The 2021-22 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season is underway and so is the [EuroLeague Fantasy Challenge](https://euroleaguefantasy.euroleaguebasketball.net/)! Over 46,000 teams are registered for the game and Iztok Izlakar was our first winner and leads the overall standings with 216.3 points. The race to overtake him has started and it will be a long one until the overall winner is decided at the end of the regular season! Remember, the overall winner gets the ultimate experience for any EuroLeague fan - two passes as the EuroLeague's VIP guests at the 2022 Final Four. Flights, four hotel nights and VIP tickets on us! The season has just started, so make sure you make more teams to challenge for this great prize... and many more!

A lot happened in Round 1, and all fantasy managers must use their three trades to make their teams stronger. Teams have limited credits, but there are a few good options to improve your teams without having to spend all of your budget. As always, here are five players we recommend this week: two guards, two forwards and a center, to make sure there is a little bit for everyone.

**1. Elie Okobo, LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (9.9 credits) -** No other player under 10 credits had a greater score in Round 1 than Okobo's 26.4 fantasy points! He made all 9 of his field-goal attempts against Zalgiris Kaunas and this week ASVEL plays against high-scoring ALBA Berlin. What's more, Okobo had another strong performance in French League action over the weekend with 17 points and a PIR of 19 PIR.

**2. Rokas Jokubaitis, FC Barcelona (7.4 credits) -** Just like last season with Zalgiris, Jokubaitis had a strong start to the EuroLeague season. He only needed 18 minutes to score 12 points, dish 6 assists and amass a PIR of 21. And like Okobo, he followed that game up with a big Spanish League performance - 22 points, 22 PIR. Jokubaitis is on fire and everyone should buy him.

**3. Tadas Sedekerskis, Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz (7.3 credits) -** Sedekerskis is a do-it-all player and that always has fantasy value. In his team's loss against Olympiacos Piraeus, Sedekerskis had 4 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals for a PIR of 11. He is set to keep doing that, that is, a little bit of everything to try to help Baskonia bounce back.

**4. Alberto Abalde, Real Madrid (8.7 credits) -** He returned from injury and helped Real to a prestigious win over Anadolu Efes Istanbul, the EuroLeague's reigning champion. Abalde came off the bench and had 5 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. He didn't make many mistakes and had a PIR of 11. His role should be even bigger this season, so keep an eye on him.

**5. Youssoupha Fall, LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (9.1 credits) -** If you manage to save credits on other spots, invest them on a good center, because there are not many good options. One of them is Fall, who is seeing significant playing time, comes off a good game and plays against ALBA Berlin, which is without three injured big men. Fall played 24 minutes, proving his foul troubles may be a thing of the past, too.

EuroLeague Fantasy Challenge tips: Round 2

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Round 2 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season is highlighted by a showdown between the competition’s two most recent champions, both of whom are looking to bounce back from defeat in last week’s openers. Here’s your guide to this week’s action.

### Efes and CSKA seek to bounce back

There's no doubt about the big game of Round 2, with the two most recent champions going head to head when 2019 winners CSKA Moscow travel to reigning champ Anadolu Efes Istanbul. It is also a key bounce-back game for both teams after they started the season with disappointing defeats. Efes suffered from a terrible opening quarter to eventually go down 82-69 against Real Madrid, while CSKA had exactly the opposite experience as it crumbled following an excellent first 10 minutes to lose 84-74 at AX Armani Exchange Milan.

A key factor could be the dominance of the paint, because CSKA has been left short-handed in that department by the continuation of Nikola Milutinov's terrible luck with injuries. Despite its eventual defeat, a bright spot for Efes in Madrid was a strong debut performance from Filip Petrusev (17 points) so the champs’ new big man will look for another big role in Istanbul on Friday.

### Classic showdown in Piraeus
A pair of Round 1’s most impressive winners square off on Friday night in a classic clash of European basketball when Olympiacos Piraeus hosts Real Madrid. Los Blancos started a new era in impressive fashion by downing Efes, as new signings Thomas Heurtel and Guerschon Yabusele led the way with a team-high 15 points apiece. Olympiacos is also in new territory following the summer retirement of Vassilis Spanoulis and the Reds showed they are ready to base its challenge on brutal defense with a thumping 75-50 opening night victory over Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Friday’s meeting will feature a battle between two of Europe’s biggest big men, with new Olympiacos signing Moustapha Fall (2.18 meters) going up against the phenomenal Walter Tavares (2.20 meters), who started the season in menacing fashion with a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds, plus 2 blocked shots. Their confrontation inside the paint will not be one for the faint-hearted.

### UNICS and Monaco in EuroCup Finals rematch

Competition newcomer AS Monaco made a very assured start to life in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, comfortably downing Panathinaikos OPAP Athens to grab its first win in style. Now the men from the principality have an opportunity to make another piece of club history by gaining their first EuroLeague road victory with a long trip east to take on UNICS Kazan on Friday.

The game is a repeat of last season’s EuroCup Finals, which saw Monaco crowned champions after winning home and away games by very small margins, 89-87 and 83-86. Rob Gray was the key performer on that occasion, with the Monaco guard scoring 23 and 25 points to earn the EuroCup Finals MVP award and he should be available to make his EuroLeague debut after missing last week’s win over Panathinaikos with injury. UNICS is still bruising from its 69-70 Round 1 loss against Zenit St Petersburg, so it will have double motivation to derail Monaco’s bright start and gain revenge for the finals defeat in April.

### Clash of collective wills between Bayern and Barca
FC Barcelona – last season’s regular-season standings leader – made a mighty impressive start to the new campaign, showing a team-first approach to easily overcome ALBA Berlin. That game saw Sarunas Jasikevicius give at least 13 minutes of playing time to all 12 of his players, all of whom responded by scoring at least 2 points and grabbing at least 1 rebound, with the impressive league-high tally of 28 assists coming from nine different players for good measure.

That kind of collective effort was the chief factor in FC Bayern Munich’s surge into last season’s playoffs and Andrea Trinchieri’s men again showed their team mentality to overcome several injury absentees and put up a strong fight at Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in Round 1, eventually losing 69-68. The German team will look to put that frustration to good use when it hosts Barca on Thursday night and will hope to recover some of the missing players whose absence in Israel effectively forced Trinchieri to play with eight men.

### Will home court count again as Greens host Fenerbahce?
The home team has nearly always prevailed in recent meetings between Panathinaikos OPAP Athens and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, with seven of their last eight games taken by the host. That trend could be tested this week, though, with Fenerbahce heading to the Greek capital on the back of a morale-boosting first win under new coach Sasa Djordjevic – who was in charge of the Greens during the 2015-16 season – while Panathinaikos suffered a worryingly comprehensive road loss at Monaco.

The Greens will look for much better performances from two key players in the backcourt. Summer signing Kendrick Perry shot 0-of-10 from the field (0-6 on two-pointers and 0-4 on threes), while veteran leader Nemanja Nedovic also suffered a night to forget as he also scored zero points by going 0-of-3 from two-point range and 0-of-4 from beyond the arc. Panathinaikos will desperately hope that bad night proves to be a one-off as it seeks to get off the mark against Fenerbahce on Thursday.

Round 2 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season is highlighted by a showdown between the competition’s two most recent champions. Here’s your guide to this week’s action.

This Week's Games: A clash of champions

Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv added depth to its backcourt by signing veteran point guard Oded Brandwein on three-month contract. Brandwein (1.79 meters, 33 years old) has been training with Maccabi for the past two weeks and even played in a preseason cup game. Last season he played for Hapoel Holon and averaged 5.4 points and 1.6 assists per game in a reserve role. Brandwein has also played for Bnei Hasharon, Hapoel Afula, Gilboa Galil, Nahariya, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Rishon LeZion, Maccabi Haifa, Nes Ziona and Maccabi Ashdod in his native Israel as well as for Kotwica Kolobrzeg, Czarni Slupsk and AZS Koszalin in Poland. 

<center>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="iw" dir="rtl">עדכון לגבי ברנדוויין ולסור &gt;&gt; <a href="https://t.co/RXKmMhGlF2">https://t.co/RXKmMhGlF2</a> <a href="https://t.co/E9t4qAfBSb">pic.twitter.com/E9t4qAfBSb</a></p>&mdash; Maccabi Tel Aviv BC (@MaccabitlvBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaccabitlvBC/status/1444943331071602688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Maccabi adds Brandwein to backcourt

Turkish Airlines EuroLeague offenses have a complicated relationship with on- and off-ball efficiency even though the competition's prowess at the latter is unmatched in elite world basketball.

### High-Gravity Matchups:
After just one round, there are few takeaways from looking at the standings, but the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague schedule is often unforgiving to teams that do not exploit every opportunity. While eight of nine host teams capitalized on home-court advantage in Round 1 – most in convincing fashion – opening week featured several marquee matchups, as well. 2021 Final Four teams AX Armani Exchange Milan and CSKA Moscow played to nearly the same result as they did in last spring's Third Place Game while Real Madrid scored a 13-point win over reigning champion Anadolu Efes Istanbul.

Neither game likely moves the needle for these clubs, but the 2020-21 season saw the line for postseason qualification drawn distinctly at 20 wins. That daunting total is the equivalent of going undefeated at home and also winning 3 road games. Setting benchmarks like that is a dramatic oversimplification of the ebbs and flows of a EuroLeague season, but if the standard for playoff qualification approaches to the historically high near-60% victory rate of last season, these early games between heavy hitters may hold major significance six months from now.

### Minding the Gap
Just as the adage "every game matters" means a lot in the EuroLeague these days, so too does the colloquial term "good look."

Synergy tags 11 different play types. Throwing out transition, miscellaneous, and put-back possessions to focus on what teams tend to do in half-court situations, the remaining eight play types can be conveniently split into two groups: on-the-ball, shot-creation situations like pick-and-rolls or post-ups; and off-the-ball situations like cuts or spot-ups. In essence, on-the-ball covers what happens when teams lean on their shot creators to score, while off-the-ball counts mostly assisted "good looks." The graph below compares the efficiency of on- and off-ball actions over the last 14 EuroLeague campaigns.

While producing this graph for every elite league in the world would reveal a similarly steady, significant gap in efficiency between on- and off-ball actions, what stands out about the EuroLeague is the size of the gap.

Last season 56% of all first-shot half-court possessions came in off-ball situations. They were converted for 1.13 points per possession – 0.28 points per possession more than on-ball possessions – the largest differential of any high-level competition in the world.

The reason for this gap is simple: the EuroLeague's off-ball efficiency is unmatched. What are often described as "good looks" are probably better described as "great looks" in the EuroLeague. The relevance of that to the league landscape is somewhat complicated. Many of the best off-ball looks teams generate require an on-ball component to distort the defense enough to create them. Indeed, reigning champion Efes has drawn a blueprint for success by taking the numbers into account.

Efes ranked first in off-ball efficiency last season with an astounding 1.22 points per possession, however a league-low 54% of their possessions came in off-ball situations. What made last year's champions so dangerous was that they averaged 0.94 points per on-ball possession, as well – the highest mark in recent history. Despite not creating many off-ball possessions compared to the rest of the league, Efes's balance in terms of efficiency made that far less relevant than it was for everyone else.

This on-ball versus off-ball comparison takes for granted much of what leads to both types of possessions. Even so, the overwhelming value in the EuroLeague of the spot-ups, cuts, off-screens-and-rolls that make up off-ball situations puts an offense's ability to earn "good lucks" under an especially powerful microscope. But it also adds perspective to the success of the teams that thrive without so many "good looks."

Stats Review: Scoring efficiency on and off the ball

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There was high anticipation at Palau Blaugrana on Friday as more than 3,000 fans gathered at FC Barcelona's home court to finally see their team in a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague game for the first time since March 2020. The hosts made sure that no one went home disappointed, thrashing ALBA Berlin 96-64 with numbers that, if anything, outdid the final score.

All 12 of Barca's players scored and grabbed at least one rebound. Nine of them dished an assist among the team's 28 as compared to just 14 turnovers. That led to stellar shooting percentages: 61.0% on two-point shots (25-of-41) and 66.7% from downtown (14-of-21). Barcelona also outrebounded ALBA 41-27.

The resulting performance index rating of 127 was Round 1's highest, 27 points ahead of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, and Barca's 11th-best this century.

All-EuroLeague forward Nikola Mirotic was the catalyst for Barca with 22 points on perfect shooting: 4 two-pointers, 4 threes and 2 free throws. It was the sixth-best scoring total without a shot missed in the EuroLeague this century and tied Barca's record for perfect shooting, held by Joe Ingles since November of 2012. Mirotic added 5 rebounds, an assist, a steal and 2 fouls drawn for a PIR of 31 – all in less than 18 minutes. In his last three games against ALBA, Mirotic has scored 66 points (22.0 ppg.) on 20-for-22 two-point shooting (90.9% 2FG).

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Drop of the shoulder and BOOM! <a href="https://twitter.com/NikolaMirotic33?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NikolaMirotic33</a> getting it done tonight 😳<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EveryGameMatters?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EveryGameMatters</a> <a href="https://t.co/srFI4NxhC1">pic.twitter.com/srFI4NxhC1</a></p>&mdash; Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) <a href="https://twitter.com/EuroLeague/status/1444034085391900673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

"We were huge on defense, everybody scored, everybody played well, so it was a perfect beginning of the season," Mirotic said right after the game. "It is all about the team. It is always about my teammates and our coaching staff. It was just great to be back and enjoy this game that I love so much. I am very happy and this is just the beginning."

No Barca player was on the floor more than 22 minutes, which was also important for head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius.

"Right now, we have a little stretch of a lot of games in seven or eight days, and it is very important that we all play together. We all contributed," he said.

Saras also joked about the return of fans to the stands and what his team can expect on the road from now on.

"When we get people back, especially on our court, it's great," he said. "When you go on the road, not so nice, you know? But it's OK, we will deal with it."

Barcelona will find out if its hot start can survive the road next week against another German team, FC Bayern, in Munich.

Playing a EuroLeague game before home fans for the first time since March 2020, FC Barcelona made sure that no one went home disappointed, thrashing ALBA Berlin 96-64 with numbers that, if anything, outdid the final score.

Mirotic, Barcelona were perfect in Round 1

FC Barcelona v ALBA Berlin (2021-10-01T19:00:00.000Z)