ABA Liga, round 4: Cibona - KK Partizan 74:90

Cibona: check. We happy, Vincent?

Get the fuck out.

Was it a shitty game? It was.

Have we been lame ducks again? We have been.

Have Cibona been a team of even lamer ducks? Absolutely.

Have there been again 600 million missed-out baskets? Possibly even more.

Am I a masochist? Beyond question.

Oh, wait, almost forgot. This newly signed Jamaican, Samuels debuted tonight. I swear I didn’t notice him being on the court until the commentator mentioned his name. The Leader Of The Gang said, he looks and moves like a bear. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t notice him, he was as sluggish as all the others.

The standing was 12:10 in the first quarter after 7 and a half minutes. Compared to the fact that this game was announced as the derby of the two top guns of ex-YU basketball, this result was depressing. The home team had turnover 6 times. We equalized for the end of the quarter, the second one was about Cibona sinking slowly. I seriously don’t know when was the last time I saw this many rebounds. It was seriously very saddening and depressive to watch. Additionally I did something I’ve never done yet: I muted the volume of the broadcast, because the commentators of ArenaSport got on my nerves. We were leading, but I almost fell asleep. Shitty game with a shitty and an even shittier team. Veličković had some tantrum before half-time

Veličković. Oh my fucking God, Veličković. Lately his only function seems to be as the 5th player to make a whole team when nobody else is around. He plays like a pensioner. Slow, sluggish, as if he would hate it all. No wonder he has been barely on court lately. He scored no points on this game. None.

The half-time result was 33:43, but I couldn’t mention a single player to have an extraordinary performance. All of them played dull. The third quarter was about Partizan or rather about how Cibona was struggling and suffering along the court, while we did whatever we wanted, or rather what our abilities made possible.If I remember well, we gained a 20-point-advantage, but I’m not sure. The last quarter was a comedy, a basketball-parody, the crappy version. We scored the first basket of the quarter after more than 5 minutes. Until that we did nothing. Though it tells all about Cibona that during these more than 5 minutes they could reduce the 51:67 difference only to 59:67. Knowing this there’s no surprise in the end result.

Cibona: Bilinovac, Uljarević, Young (20), Žorić (20), Ćorić, Melvin III (9), Novačič, Bošnjak (8), Rozić (12), Gospić (3), Tomas (2), Bušma

Partizan: Williams-Goss (20), Tadić, Marinković (19), Veličković, Tomić, Pecarski, Gavrilović (6), Andrić (14), Samuels (16), Čakarević (6), Stevanović (3), Šalić (6)

Cibona - KK Partizan 63:57 (Adriatic League, Round 6)

It was a very bad match, with a lot of mistakes and struggles, and even the referees didn’t like us.
Cibona made it to 7:0 at the very beginning. By sweating blood, with the baskets of Đumić, Vitkovac and Marinković we switched the standing to 7:9. Cibona quickly equalized and changed the standing to 16:9. Vitkovac reduced the difference from free throws to 16:13. We finished the first quarter with 18:15, Magdevski scored in the last second.
The standing was modified to 23:17 in the following quarter. Nothing worked for us. We missed out all attempts, the ball always rebounded when we threw and the referees judged against us following some very strange logics.

Logics, bwahahahahaha....

For our luck Cibona also missed out a lot of chances, or else they would have been leading even here with too many points. Still they made it to 29:21, but then entered Danilo Anđušić, who just returned to KK Partizan.
Anđušić came, Anđušić saw and the standing became 29:28.

(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)

That was the half time result as well.
Then we came back for the second half and switched the standing with Milutinović’s 3-pointer (29:31). Cibona took back the lead (32:31), but Vitkovac again switched it (32:34). Cibona equalized (34:34), Vitkovac threw another 3-pointer (34:37). Here we could keep our advantage quite well, at a point we were leading to 36:42. Cibona reduced it to 41:42, then Anđušić interfered. We entered the last quarter with 43:46.
In the fourth part Vrabac scored (43:48), so did Vitkovac (46:50), then... then we just struggled. It wasn’t a good game. There was nothing spectacular, no great fight, but too many missed out chances (on both sides), struggling, sometimes even wrestling. It was rather exhausting than exciting. The extra bonus was that referees kept on whistling against us more and more often, interrupting our attacks with (any) excuse, giving free throws to Cibona. At 48:50 the Croatian team took back the lead (51:50). Milutinović switched the standing once more (54:55), but then Cibona equalized and took back the lead with a 3-pointer (58:55). They quickly made it to 60:55, then Vitkovac performed an amazing steal and scored a fantastic basket (60:57).
Then came the referees.
They whistled fault on us always in the middle of our attacks and every single time they served free throws to Cibona on golden plate. This injustice made Cvetković lose control so much that he pushed a Cibona-player to the ground. For this he was fouled out. We had a few tryings (well, when we had the chance...), but none of them had any fruits. Finally it ended with 63:57.

Not only Vitkovac reached the low(est) level, but the team as well

(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)

Highlights:

Cibona: Beriša (4), Krušlin (22), Hukić, Rozić (4), Jagodić-Kuridža (8), Slavica (2), Mandić, Mavra (9), Jokšimović (5), Žižić (7)

KK Partizan: Cvetković (5), Aranitović (3), Marinković (6), Vitkovac (16), Đumić (4), Koprivica, Perović, Magdevski (2), Milutinović (8), Glišić, Vrabac (2), Anđušić (11)

I bring you league table tomorrow, there are games left from this round.

Update: current standing of the League
1. Budućnost 11 points
2. CZ 10 points
3. Union Olimpija 10 points
4. Cedevita 10 points
5. MZT Skopje 9 points
6. Metalac 9 points
7. Igokea 8 points
8. Mega Leks 8 points
9. Partizan 8 points
10. Sutjeska 8 points
11. Cibona 8 points
12. Zadar 8 points
13. Tajfun Šentjur 8 points
14. Krka 8 points

KK Cibona - KK Partizan 64:81 (Adriatic League)

"Derby match".
(So to speak.)
There were moments of this "derby match" when the difference was 30 points for our benefit.
But first things first, you get some warm-up photos.

We started slowly, in the beginning Cibona was ahead of us to 11:10. Murić, Milutinov and Milosavljević scored from our side, so we could switch the standing to 11:16. At the end of the first quarter Đumić debuted. Cibona tried their best, but however much they were trying, we won the period to 21:25.
Then came our secret weapon.
Nikola Milutinov.
Milutinov came, saw and the difference was 10 points (21:31). Then 24:34. Then...

...then Saša Pavlović happened.
And not just him.

The difference became 20 points and it was still only the 2nd quarter (26:46). We went to half-time with waving flags and a result of 28:50.

Boris Dallo, some time during the match

Nikola Milutinov, standing at the paint, ready for free throw

The next period was even more convincing. Pavlović and Tepić made a row of 3-pointers, pushing the difference up to almost 30 points (30:59), then after Tepić’s fantastic turnover it indeed became 30 points (30:61). Mačvan could be stopped only with bodycheck, the Serbian national team member "thanked" it with a genius troll-styled steal. Milutinov was knocked out in the meantime, the center came off the parquet jumping on one leg. The match ended for him at that point. (Later news told he suffered only a minor strain, nothing serious, thankfully.) Meanwhile Đumić presented the Living Wall trick:

Cibona picked themselves together and made a sometimes literally rough defence. The quarter’s result was 41:68.
The final part was opened by Mačvan (41:71), then Cibona made it to 50:74. For the last few minutes they could speed up and reduce the difference to be at least within the humiliating 20 points. (64:81) For us it didn’t matter, it was a smooth win.

"Haters gonna hate" - Marinković played it cool

(photos: Twitter)

Update: full match is available.

KK Partizan - Cibona 73:64 (Adriatic League)

We started with 5:5, then the Milutinov-Tepić brigade brought the team up to 14:8.

Excellent... Tepić is getting back to shape

Bald head brings luck

Cibona kept on trying, but Partizan raised the difference with turnovers (19:10). Murić made it to two-digit with a 3-pointer (22:12). The end of the first quarter was 24:16 to us.

Andreja Milutinović in action

In the second period Marinković shouted "that’s how we roll", joined by Mačvan and Murić.
And how do we roll?
Like this:

Nobody could stop us. We had a massive defense and overwhelming attack as well as Bogdanović’s 3-pointer (39:25).

Cibona tried to find their breath - with more or less success - but Partizan was irresistible. The half time was 45:30.
In the third quarter Partizan continued to wash up Pionir Hall with the Zagreb team (53:36). At the end of the period the Croatians sped up a bit (55:42), but Mačvan and Gagić interrupted. The end of the quarter brought the result of 61:50.

Air Dallo

Cibona still tried to pick themselves together (61:52), in the meantime Mačvan got a technical foul by a questionable referee judgement. Milutinov didn’t make a big deal of it, but rather threw a number of baskets (67:53).

There was even some wrestling

Mačvan also showed up with a 3-pointer (71:60), finally we won to 73:64.

And a bad news to the end: Partizan terminated contract on mutual agreement with Đoko Šalić. There are no details yet - as soon as there is any, the post will be updated.

(photos: Facebook/KK Partizan)