Barcelona vs. Madrid

It's the Spanish super classic, and that says it all. Both teams were pretty much qualified all ready, but there was no question about motivation in the game. There was hyped up, great emotion and 100-percent effort by everyone: players, coaches, anyone there, including fans, of course, who were involved from beginning to end. Real had a great Top 16 coming in, riding a wave from their huge win in Tel Aviv. Barcelona might have been disappointed to have lost their semifinal in the Copa del Rey, even if Tau had been the favorite. Barcelona has only the highest ambitions this season, and losing the cup probably left a bitter taste, but gave them motivation to take first place from Madrid.

Right from the get-go, both teams played uptempo, not with the great defense I would have expected. But it was great to watch, up and down with quick points, back and forth, before Barcelona took control for the rest of the game, basically. I had been a little surprised to read Barcelona coach Xavi Pascual say before the game that his team had "dominated" Madrid for 110 of the 120 minutes they played previously this season. I was interested to see what affect that might have o the floor, but Barça dominated this time too. They were more energetic, more aggressive and unselfish. And they had a lot of fun playing the game. An important factor was that they got Jaka Lakovic back, who is crucial for them. Victor Sada did a good job in his absence, but Jaka is the main man as far as the point there, so that was a second plus for Barcelona, besides the win.

Any team can have the best quality personnel, but what's most important is how much fun they have playing together. You could see joy in the way Barcelona played. You saw Sada open for a three-pointer but pass inside for a dunk by Vazquez. You saw Gianluca Basile in the same situation, open again after he had hit two other three-pointers, but instead faking now to draw three Real Madrid defenders and passing for another dunk. It's great, simple basketbal played with respect for each other. Looking for the extra pass was the story for Barcelona. Everyone expected them to do big things since the preseason, but it's always a question of how the players stick together. There can be a lot of stars, but there's only one ball. Barcelona has it figured out.

Montepaschi vs. Cibona

There were questions about Siena going in. They had lost big to CSKA in Moscow, had lost their first Italian League game all season to Bologna, and not only lost the game, but lost Ksistof Lavrinovic, an important part of their team, to a broken hand. Nonetheless, they showed up as a focused, experienced team and demonstrated in a big game that all the battles they had been through together were worth a lot on this night, with one of their most important players missing. I thought it would take a normal, solid game for Siena to win. Cibona is having its best season in recent years, and for me, the difference is the Velimir Perasovic factor. They've had good luck with their American players, but they don't have more budget than any other years. The most important thing is that Coach Perasovic gives them a lot of self-confidence that is clear to see in their performance. The players respect him and derive a lot of self-confidence from his presence on the bench.

In the game, Siena clearly depended on their main guy, Terrell McIntyre. Early in the game he already had two quick three-pointers, a coast-to-coast basket going through three Cibona defenders and two great passes on the pick-'n'-roll. He was all over the place for them, and everyone followed his lead. T-Mac is a great leader, first team All-Euroleague and his teammates got inspired by his peformance and followed suit. I also have to credit Siena's defense, which did a good job defending Davor Kus and Early Calloway, who were the two main reasons that Cibona won their game in Zagreb. This time, Cibona tried to make the game interesting, but unfortunately could not stop McElroy and their own main players didn't get it going due to unforced errors on the fastbreak: missing easy shots three, four times and throwing away passes on three-on-two and two-on-one breaks. Those are the kinds of things you have to capitalize on to beat a team like Siena that has now won 14 straight at home. Siena showed up, took care of business and answered all the question marks surround them as we head into the playoffs.

Quick hits...

Partizan vs. Panathinaikos

Being from the Czech Republic, I want to say how happy I am for Jan Vesely and Partizan and European basketball overall after the phenomenon we saw in Belgrade on Thursday. I have played and won final events in front of 35,000 people in college at UCLA and in the finals of the Euroleague with Zalgiris in Munich, but just watching the scene in Belgrade last night gave me goosebumps. What an atmosphere, really incredible: the fans, the flags, the singing, the cheering. I am happy that Jan is a part of that and played the most minutes on Partizan's team for that record-breaking game. Congratulations to the whole Partizan organization on the supreme job they are doing with young players. That certainly is the most pleasantly surprising team of the Euroleague season!"