As you know, we have made it to the Euroleague Playoffs against CSKA Moscow, one of the best teams in Europe with a lot of top-level players. The series has been really hard from the very beginning and by the time I am writing this, we have lost twice against CSKA and are getting ready for Game 3 at Miribilla. We were not so ready in Game 1, mostly mentally. We managed to get there and fight in Game 2, but CSKA played very well and hit a lot of shots down the stretch. Of course, we will have better chances to beat them in Bilbao. It is unbelievable to be in the playoffs. Nobody expected this from us and everybody is happy – our fans, the club, players, all of us. We battled hard all season long and we really deserve to be one of the eight teams still standing in the competition.

I had been to Moscow before and played against CSKA when I was with Maroussi. It is a nice city. It was a little bit snowy and cold, unlike Spain at this time of the year. I hope I can go back really soon, meaning that Gescrap wins its two home games and reaches Game 5 to try to make it to the Final Four!

We didn't play the right way in Game 1. When you don't play hard against a team like CSKA and you let them play their game, they can run and get comfortable. They hit a lot of shots at very high percentages and we couldn't compete against them. That loss helped us to understand what we cannot do. We have to stop them from getting easy baskets, especially in transition. We cannot make turnovers, because they are a big-sized team with great ability to collect steals and run. We have to keep the game... more

Hello again, Euroleague fans! We at Gescrap BB are getting ready for our rematch against Real Madrid! As you know, we have faced every opponent in our Top 16 group and won one game at home and lost twice on the road. We started it with a tough game in Siena, in which we competed well and lost the game by details. We had a great game against Unicaja, managed to get our first-ever Top 16 win and keep our home court protected. Then we went on to lose against Real Madrid, which forces us to beat them at Miribilla this week. In fact, we have back-to-back home games coming up and it is a must for us to win both of them. We haven't lost at home and that is critical for any team in the Top 16. We have to make the most out of the home court advantage or otherwise we may run out of chances as soon as this week!

It was hard to start the Top 16 playing on the road against such an experienced team as Montepaschi Siena. They know the competition really well and how to play these games. We had a blackout of several minutes at some point and that is how Montepaschi got the lead for good. It was a good lesson for us on how to play in the Top 16 – if you have some weak minutes or you don't do things right, your opponent will punish you right away, especially if you are facing a top-level team like Montepaschi. We have to be focused for 40 minutes if we want to have the chance to win,... more

Hello, Euroleague fans! I am Dimitrios Mavroeidis of Gescrap BB. The Euroleague has given me the chance to speak my mind throughout the Top 16, so I hope you will like my blog! Truth to be told, we are excited to be in the Top 16. We battled to reach the Top 16 from the very first minute we stepped on court in Game 1 against Olympiacos. If you think this is the end of the road for us, think again. We are hungrier than ever to get as far as we can and are ambitious to fight to get to the quarterfinals. It wasn't easy, of course, especially after a tough home loss against Cantu. Our philosophy as a team is to fight for every win no matter what and despite what happened, we managed to beat Fenerbahce Ulker and Caja Laboral to get to the Top 16. We fight in every game, never give up and always believe in ourselves, as a team. We fought to achieve this goal – and did it.

This is not my first Top 16; I played at this stage with Maroussi in the past. The situation is pretty similar to the one I went through two years ago. Back in Maroussi, we didn't have anything to lose but fought hard and were really close to making it to the playoffs. We had a tough group then with Partizan, Barcelona and Panathinaikos, but this year's Top 16 group with Madrid, Unicaja and Montepaschi is also very difficult. The focus is the same. We will go out there, do our best and if we do that, we... more