EuroLeague 10th round finishes today


The 10th round of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague comes to an end today with three matches. A true Turkish Airlines EuroLeague classic tips off today's action as co-leader CSKA Moscow (7-2) hosts FC Barcelona (4-5) in a rematch of a game that has been staged on four occasions in the Final Four this century. Barcelona hopes to build on the momentum of two consecutive big home wins by gaining its first road victory, while CSKA's league-best offense (87.3 points per game) looks to further extend its seven-game streak of scoring at least 80 points. Barcelona has dished more assists than any other team (22.2 assists per game), so disrupting the visiting team's rhythm will be key for Coach Dimitris Itoudis's team.

Elsewhere, Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens (6-3) hosts Unicaja Malaga (3-6). In-form Panathinaikos will aim for a fifth straight win with the visit of a Unicaja team that has lost three straight and not won in Athens for nearly 12 years. Panathinaikos has significantly better shooting percentages than the Spanish team, especially from long-range with a 39.8 percent 3-point conversion rate against Unicaja's 29.6 percent. Those shooting woes help to explain why Unicaja has the lowest-scoring offense in the EuroLeague, averaging just 71 points per game, and it will surely need a lot more than that to challenge a Panathinaikos team that has averaged 84.5 points at home this season.

In today's last match, Real Madrid (5-4) take on Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade (2-7) riding a wave of negative momentum will seek to turn that around in the Spanish capital. Injury-plagued host Madrid has lost four of its last five games, while Zvezda has dropped five in a row to sink to the bottom of the standings.

The Serbian champion can at least take heart that its offense found form in last week's narrow loss to Baskonia, surpassing 80 points for the first time since Round 4. And the visitors will need to maintain that pace because, despite its recent losses, Madrid remains the second-highest scoring team in the competition with an average of 84.9 points per game.