Celtics Keep Streak Alive, Partizan & Cibona Lose

The Celtics

The Celtics are 24 – 2 this season. They extended their winning streak to 16 games with last night’s win over Atlanta. An up and down game in which Rajon Rondo confirmed his aspirations to have big three replaced with big four. Kendrick Perkins is also coming close to averaging double-double for the season so far. So, maybe we’ll be talking about big five, the way it should actually be on a championship team.

Atlanta is a good team and they played up to their reputation last night. They have depth, inside-outside game, toughness, athleticism… almost everything that championship teams are made of. Still, something is missing. The intangible mental component – apparent when Joe Johnson missed his free throw at the end of the game. I am convinced that if the Celtics play them in the playoffs this season again it will not be in the first round, because I don’t think the Hawks will be positioned last in the East going into the playoffs.

Partizan

They played likely the most important game of the season against Armani Jeans in Milan and they lost it. They lost it without really challenging their opponent. After throwing praises Tripkovic’s way the other night against Cibona, he scored only 7 points on 3-10 shooting. Others shot badly, with exception of Tepic, but even he had a bad three-point shot evening. Partizan is very much dependent on outside shooting, their inside game is provided by Vranjes (defensive talent, but offensive hole on the team) and Lasme who plays well only in streaks. This week wasn’t his good week. Another unfortunate thing happened to Partizan: Real Madrid won against CSKA in Moscow. This throws Partizan almost out of contention for Top 16. Now they depend on others; the most important game for them will be Efes Pilsen against Panionis in Greece. Efes win would hurt Partizan’s chances. Of course, they have to win their match up with Panionis at home.

Cibona

Cibona played Olympiakos, the team where Josh Childress plays, and Cibona lost big. They defeated Olympiakos at home earlier in the season. They are in a very good shape to qualify to Top 16 round. They cannot win their group, but who even expected that to happen at the beginning of the season. Even going to Top 16 was only a dream. Now, that dream is real… and when the next round starts, who knows?! The only positive from the game in Greece was that Perasovic, Cibona’s coach, gave opportunity to young Zubcic to play in Euroleague, and he did it by still trying to play competitively. Developing young talent of their own is something Cibona skipped doing over the past 15 years. Now may be the time to launch somebody new.