KK Partizan - Budućnost 61:64 (ABA Liga, round 7)

We won’t put this game on display for sure... A match we were about to win, but we let it out of our hands.
Though the atmosphere was excellent.

There were some old friends there.

Then jump ball, kickstart.
After 14 seconds Luković was fouled.
More than a minute passed when the first score arrived (0:3).
After one and a half minute came the first technical foul (for Budućnost).
Almost two minutes passed when we could equalize (3:3).
So, you get the point.
Then Vrabac got injured on his forehead after a clash. He got a quick first aid, from then on he played the whole game with bandage on his eyebrow. Hero.
Yet Budućnost was leading. Though I have to think hard to remember when we had such a struggling game. The standing was 5:10 in the middle of the quarter. We were out of order, so was the opponent. A terrible amount of missed out attempts on both sides. Two and a half minutes before the end it was 7:14. We narrowed the standing a bit for the end, but Average Fan could hear the noise of clenched teeth through the stream... The quarter finished with 11:18.

Good boy... Nikolić (19) gets a pat on the head from Majstorović

The second quarter was the sequel of the first in the beginning. Budućnost was slowly tearing us into tiny pieces... Then Novica Veličković took the team on his back and made a fantastic march. The standing was 13:27, we got a free throw, he scored. And then there was no stop. The others also got the gear (17:27 by Robinson, then later 21:30 by Luković) and we came up to 35:29!!!! Good Lord, it’s just IMPOSSIBLE what we did. We made a 22:2 series the Novi Beograd sports hall was about to explode.

It’s Veličković time!

6 seconds were left from the quarter, Budućnost got a free throw (35:30). Then Vrabac got the ball and he ran up, with bandage on his face and after a tremendous solo he made a BUZZER BEATER making it 37:30 for the half-time. This was one of Partizan’s greatest resurrections, for sure.

"Hey mate, you goin’ to the snack bar in the half-time? Bring me two Smokis, kthx"

In the beginning of the third quarter we continued our march. We kept it quite well until the middle of the part (43:37), when Budućnost slowly started to reduce the difference. One and a half minute before the end they equalized (43:43). Luković took back the lead (45:43). They equalized again (45:45). 18 seconds were left, we got a free throw. Robinson brought us a little advantage, enough of a small breath. (46:45).
Then Budućnost took the lead (48:49). Cold shower. Players were wrestling on the court, making a long row of missed-out attempts and free throws, both sides. Nightmare. The guests were leading to 49:56, barely 4 minutes were left from the game. Struggling. We jump to 54:56. Hatcher equalizes for us (56:56).
Less than two and a half minutes are left. Budućnost takes back the lead (56:58). Robinson scores a fantastic 3-pointer (59:58).
One minute and 15 seconds are left. It’s unbelievable. Budućnost also scores a 3-pointer. They even get a bonus shot. They’re leading again... (61:62). Great struggling and fight on the court.
55 seconds are left. Players are fighting with each other. The referee gives the ball to Budućnost. Their coach asks for time-out. The whole sports hall is on their feet. The teams come back on the court. We get the ball, we run up for an attack. Marinković shots from 3-pointer position... and misses it out.
7 seconds are left. Free throw for Budućnost.
Williams scores both. 61:64. Aleksandar Džikić asks for time-out.
It’s all in vain. We run back to the court, Veličković tries an attempt... and misses it out.
The end.

Highlights:

KK Partizan: Robinson (11), Ratkovica (2), Vrabac (5), Marinković (4), Veličković (15), Majstorović, Birčević (6), Koprivica, Andrić, Hatcher (6), Pot, Luković (12)

Budućnost: Reynolds (10), Williams (13), Šehović (8), James (12), Subotić (2), Ilić, Savović (5), Nikolić (7), Popović (7), Vranješ

Current standing of the league:
1. Budućnost 14 points
2. Cibona 13 points
3. Partizan 13 points
4. CZ 12 points
5. Cedevita 11 points
6. Igokea 10 points
7. Zadar 10 points
8. FMP 9 points
9. Mega Leks 9 points
10. Krka 9 points
11. Mornar Bar 8 points
12. MZT Skopje 8 points
13. Union Olimpija 6 points
14. Karpoš 6 points

(photos: hotsport.rs)

Football and basketball news

I'm rolling on the floor from laugh.
It's unbelievable. You just browse through the headlines of news sites and the end-of-summer depression dissolves into thin air. Then in the next moment you fell off your chair. What an irony.
Bojan Šaranov leaves Partizan. Miroslav Radović is just a step away from leaving, and if rumours are true, Bojinov is also packing his suitcases.
Šaranov has signed to Qarabag in Azerbaijan. Radović is about to return to his former team, Legia Warsaw. (He was seen in Warsaw, it is only the question of time. Partizan has nothing against the transaction, Radović wants to get back to Poland as quickly as possible, or maybe rather he wants to leave the Serbian championship with this speed.)
Bojinov heard the call of an unnamed Turkish as well as an unnamed Greek team. Both are told to have a very tempting offer for the Bulgarian. Bojinov, according to Hotsport, has said farewell to Partizan-fans on his Instagram.

I still can’t believe it. The Butterfly-catcher, the Pensioner and the Show-off leave. Only these two Brazilians, Everton and Leonardo should be sold out, possibly to a faraway championship, e.g. to UAE or China. Then I may even be excited to see Partizan-matches, regardless of the low level.

To cut it short, I haven’t been this happy very long ago to see the selling of Partizan-players.

***

Lately I pretty much forgot to tell about the basketball team,

mea culpa

even though life hasn’t stopped around them for a minute. First, almost the entire team has left. The three Americans, Jones, Wilson and Williams all left right after the end of the season, as their contract expired. Aranitović and Cvetković have signed to Manresa (ESP), Murić left to Turkey, Magdevski is still on loan at OKK Beograd, Đumić has signed to Sloboda Tuzla. There’s no info about Vitkovac and Veličković, but their photos have been removed from Partizan’s website.
Those who are still KK Partizan’s players: Adin Vrabac, Mihajlo Andrić, Miloš Koprivica and Vanja Marinković. There are a few new signings, e.g. Branislav Ratkovica, Uroš Luković, Đorđe Majstorovic (from Metalac), Stefan Birčević (who was a national team member at the Olympic Games) and two Americans,  Frank Robinson and William Hatcher.

New Beginnings....#kkpartizan

A photo posted by William Hatcher (@william_hatcher25) on Aug 11, 2016 at 8:09am PDT

Dad hats and wrinkled shirts... Preseason grind in between practices 😂😂😂. All my hoopers know you not thinking bout no iron once you get to the house and wake up from that two hour nap before the second practice... 😂😂

A photo posted by Frank Robinson (@califrank5) on Aug 27, 2016 at 4:42am PDT

What is more, if rumours are true, Saša Pavlović wants to return to Partizan.
The team is playing preseason friendly games now, then in autumn they will take part in the fresly founded basketball Champions League.
ABA League will kickstart on 1st October with two newbies in the championship, Karpoš Sokoli from Macedonia and Mornar BAR from Montenegro.

KK Partizan - Borac Čačak 102:77 (superliga, round 1)

After ABA League/Adriatic League there was a two-month-long gap until the Serbian domestic league to start.
Though we didn’t have any time to get bored in between.
The leading news of this period was the verbal karate between FIBA and the basketball associations around Europe.

I try to make just a short summary about it: it all started with FIBA declaring that they were not willing to acknowledge Euroleague as an official competition. (This is not a fresh fight, it started long ago and it will surely not end in the near future. There are definitely clashes of interest in the background, but that should be the topic of another blogpost.) As ABA League is tied to Euroleague, FIBA declared, they would not acknowledge ABA League either as an official competition series. 
What is more, they also declared, all those nations which enter ABA League or Euroleague, their national teams will be banned from every international competition (EuroBasket, world championship, Olympic Games) - countries like Serbia, Spain, Russia, Lithuania or Slovenia (in the meantime Croatia confirmed that they would co-operate with FIBA, at the same time they would turn away from ABA League). As for Serbia, right now it seems that the Serbian Basketball Association will choose ABA League and Euroleague vs. the national team.
My very own two cents: no right decision can be brought in this situation. The KSS can only decide which finger they should push into their eyes.

Partizan had their very own private warfare with KSS in the meantime. As we found out, Partizan may enter the Eurocup-series next season with a little luck (if we can get the wild card). Yet KSS declared, if Partizan entered Eurocup, we would get banned from the Serbian domestic league.

Don’t ever ask me why. There is probably FIBA in the background of this decision, but I (still) can’t see through the why’s and how’s. If anyone has any information about it, you can write it to the comment section below. Thanks in advance.

KK Partizan’s sports director Dragan Todorić had a clear-cut reaction on it. He sent both KSS and FIBA straight to hell, and he added, if Partizan gets the wild card, then we will enter Eurocup, even if green snow falls on Belgrade in the middle of the summer.
And if this was still not enough, KK Partizan’s president Nikola "Pekmen" Peković had a controversial interview in the media.

Let’s get it straight: Pekmen licked the current Serbian government’s ass clear. It means, well... if you don’t know what it means, then I don’t know where you have been in the past two years.

After all these Serbian superliga could finally get a start yesterday, and Partizan had an easy training game with Čačak.
The match had to be played behind closed doors, from a nobody-remembers-when-and-what-happened punishment by KSS. But on the stands you could still see two old friends.

Saša Pavlović and Nemanja Bezbradica

(photo: sportskacentrala.com)

All the flags with the team’s former championship titles and victores disappeared. This only Serbian flag was hung there - the others were gone almost surely as the result of the fight between ABA League/Euroleague and FIBA

(photo: Twitter)

During the national anthem

(photo: Twitter)

The beginning of the game was a bit tough, Borac got a free throw in the very first minute (0:1), then they jumped to 8:12. It didn’t last long, we equalized (12:12, Koprivica had such a great game, why does this kid not get more chance to play?).

Miloš Koprivica with the ball

(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)

Then it soon turned into 26:18.
This was that moment, too (2 and a half minutes were left from the first quarter) when Novica Veličković, who returned to Partizan a few weeks ago, entered the court.

(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)

We soon reached the two-digit difference (28:18, Wilson). We practically won the match at this point. The quarter ended with 37:26.
The second quarter was even smoother. 43:26 (Veličković), 47:30 (Jones), 49:34 (Vitkovac).
And then came Petar Aranitović.
The kid washed off team Čačak from the court. He scored 9 points within 1-2 minutes (58:34). He was at everywhere, caught the ball and threw it into the ring every single time (even Murić’s rebound). At the end he closed the first half with such a 3-pointer that should be taught at academies (63:36).

The second half was just a formality. There’s not much to say about it. We were just throwing the ball into the basket, Team Čačak was nice to us, they just let us play around.

They deserve a hats-off though. It was a fair play game with them, and they fought as much as  they could, despite Partizan’s obvious advantage.

No highlights, I found none official. Yet here is the entire game, you can watch it again, if you’d like.

KK Partizan: Cvetković, Aranitović (14), Jones (12), Murić (11), Marinković (10), Veličković (9), Vitkovac (5), Koprivica (9), Milutinović (5), Williams (10), Vrabac (6), Wilson (11)

Borac Čačak: Čarapić (6), Mitrović, Popović, Mićović (13), Bojić (2), Avramović (27), Bojović (2), Radonjić (19), Stanojević (1), Radović, Stevanović (3), Mišković (6)

League table will be brought later.
Update: championship standings after the 1st round

Group A:
1. CZ 2 points
2. FMP 2 points
3. Metalac 1 point
4. Tamiš 1 point

Group B:
1. Mega Leks 2 points
2. Partizan 2 points
3. Borac 1 point
4. Konstantin 1 point

Saša Pavlović signed to Panathinaikos

The latest news speak about the departure of Saša Pavlović and Partizan’s basketball team. News are still not confirmed, but Pavlović has allegedly signed to Greek team Panathinaikos, where he’ll work with former Partizan player and Serbian national team coach Saša Đorđević personally.
As soon as there is any confirmation, I’ll update the post.

Update:
Saša Pavlović personally confirmed the news to the Serbian press. He said, the reason behind transferring to Greece was head coach Saša Đorđević. Đorđević mentioned earlier, he would have liked Pavlović to get signed to Panathinaikos - now it happened.

Update 2:
Finally here is the official version: Panathinaikos confirmed the signing of Saša Pavlović on Facebook.

Η ΚΑΕ Παναθηναϊκός ανακοινώνει την επίτευξη συμφωνίας με τον Αλεξάνταρ Πάβλοβιτς για τον επόμενο χρόνο! #paobcΔιαβάστε περισσότερα εδώ ➳ http://bit.ly/1D3YwWQ
Posted by Panathinaikos BC on Friday, July 10, 2015

Basketball news

Partizan's basketball team will not participate in the Eurocup-series next season. It was confirmed by team president Predrag Danilović. The reason behind is financial difficulties. The team’s finances do not allow Partizan to enter the competition.

A big thanks to everyone who is responsible for this. We appreciate it. We’ll show our gratitude, too, you can be sure.

***

Partizan basketball team’s captain Dragan Milosavljević signed to German Bundesliga team Alba Berlin for 2 years. Alba Berlin confirmed it on their Twitter page.

2-Jahres-Vertrag für #Partizan-Kapitän Dragan #Milosavljevic. Herzlich willkommen in Berlin! https://t.co/VZJwNTX1xx pic.twitter.com/GJ2OuSIs6I

— ALBA BERLIN (@albaberlin) June 25, 2015

Three other players are still unsure about the future. Well, I should correct myself, because Milan Mačvan will surely not play in Partizan in the next season, there are no infos though where he will continue his career. The contract of Milenko Tepić and Saša Pavlović have expired, and Nikola Milutinov is looking forward to be drafted by an NBA-team (most probably by Cleveland).
As for Tepić, nothing is known. The player himself also just shrugged when journalists asked him about his future. While rumours about Pavlović talk about the possibility that he might end his professional basketball career.

Captain,
A big big thank you for everything. It’s hard, maybe even impossible to put our gratefulness into words for all that you did for Partizan. You risked your health, you won matches, you carried the whole team on your back. You always acted and talked like a real sportsman. You were a role model for young players and children. We will miss you a lot, still it had to happen. Good luck to you and show those Germans what Partizan-heart is like.

As for us, dear fellow fans, from now on we’ll watch German basketball Bundesliga matches as well.

Crvena Zvezda - KK Partizan 58:54 (Serbian SuperLiga final, 3rd match)

That’s it, folks. It’s needless to attenuate it. We failed at the basketball final and lost the championship title.

We can analyze it though. We can blame the terrible financial state of the team, we can blame all the injuries, we can call it bribe, we can shame the absolutely not impartial referees, we can even call political tailwind. The fact will still remain fact. We could not win even one game during the final.

At the beginning we warmed up.

Little Mara, everyone’s angel helped Marinković to warm up

The boys were wearing these T-shirts during the warm-up. They are for the benefit of Humanitarna fondacija Novi Beograd

Pavlović warms up

A handful of Partizan-fans were allowed only, but they overscreamed red fans even in the beginning, holding torches, making smoke. In the first quarter the two teams battled bitterly with clenched teeth. It was a nip and tuck game, the standing was 16:16 soon before the end. There was a great fight on the court, Zvezda pressured one more basket into the ring (18:16), the end result of the quarter was 18:17 after Marinković scored 1 from free throw.
In the beginning of the second half we took the lead. Milutinov dunked Pavlović’s rebound. What is more, Milosavljević scored a giant 3-pointer from at least 8 metres (18:22). In the meantime Pavlović was wrestling with two Zvezda-players. The referee didn’t whistle, instead he let Zvezda equalize. That’s the right thing to do, isn’t it, Mr. Referee?... (22:22) Never mind, Mačvan took us back the lead (22:24). Kalinić rubbed himself to Pavlović with a homoerotic twerking, hoping for the referee to whistle foul (he did). Despite all we kept our advantage. At 23:26 Andrić scored a 3-pointer (23:29). Kalinić took full advantage of the "moron idiot" mode, but eventually he was freaked out when the referees validated Andrić’s next score (23:31), even though he, or rather He, Nikola Kalinić personally smashed the ball off the backboard, just when it was about to fall into the ring. (Rules of basketball say it clearly: when the ball is about to fall into the ring, but an opponent player blocks it right before it touches the ring, it must be still validated as a regular score.) Mitrović also yelled at Andrić after referees whistled the 3rd foul on Zvezda’s player. Yet this was the point when the fuse was blown for the referees. They gave a lot of free throws to Zvezda while whistling foul for Partizan-players, one after the other. Zvezda reduced the difference to 27:31. At this point Mačvan, Milosavljević and Milutinov put their reserve energies into action and increased the difference to 27:37. Our advantage was 10 points. We could have made it for the half-time, but referees just had to whistle a free throw for Zvezda right before the buzz. (28:37)

Fans again sent their greetings to everyone

When 3rd quarter started, the stream collapsed. A desperate search for a working one started - thanks to KLS’s stream I could see Zvezda brutally reduced their difference.

I wish I didn’t see that.

At first it was 33:39

at this point I found ArenaSport 2’s stream, thank God. I watched the first half on RTS - their speaker was beneath criticism

then it was 44:44. What the hell was going on?... Did these red-white striped trolls lick plutonium in the locker-room during half time or what?...
And then came the coup de grace. Right at the buzz.

The referees validated it. Rules say, if the player drops the ball, and the ball leaves his hands still before the buzz, the score must be validated. Well, after numerous re-watching I’m still not sure whether Zirbes threw the ball before or after the buzz. I admit though, I’m not impartial.

We finished the third quarter with 46:44.
It quickly became 48:44. Kalinić pushed Mačvan to the floor within the paint, but the referees didn’t mind it. We kept the pace even though everything was against us. Red fans yelled disgusting swearings on Partizan-players, referees openly favoured Zvezda, but despite all we kept ourselves to 50:48. Again it looked like whenever we had a chance to reduce the difference, equalize, or God forbid, took back the lead, Zvezda immediately got a free throw gift to keep them safe. That’s how 50:48 quickly became 54:48. Yet when Tepić was pushed down to the ground heavily, and someone from Zvezda squeezed the ball out of his hands, nobody whistled (maybe only Partizan-fans, as the sign of their disapprove). But when someone from Partizan wanted to tackle Kalinić, referees immediately whistled foul. There were only 9 seconds left. We got a free throw. Milosavljević stood to the paint.
And a rotten bastard from the red mass dazzled him with a laser pointer. The green laser dot was clearly seen in the replay.
May your hand rot off your arms, you lousy moron, who did it.
The Captain missed out the first throw, well, no wonder. He scored from the second. 56:54.
9 seconds left. Hell broke loose on the court. Players were wrestling and fighting. And in the very last moment referees gave a free throw to Zvezda, because it couldn’t have happened any other way.
58:54.
The end.

Players went up to the tribune among fans at the end

They were a bit out of clothes when they walked back to the locker-room, but this time nobody bothered

Mačvan will not stay at Partizan. He himself announced, he’d play at another team in the next season (no details yet).

Rumours say, Dragan Milosavljević might also leave for Spain

(Photos: Twitter)

KK Partizan - Crvena Zvezda 69:72 (Serbian SuperLiga final, 2nd match)

Partizan was the home team at the second clash of the superliga final. On one hand it meant Grave Diggers could finally occupy Pionir Hall (only a handful of red fans were allowed this time, in a well-separated corner of the hall, surrounded by security guards and gendarmerie). On the other hand a lot of honourable guests came to see Partizan.
There was Novica Veličković...

...Danilo Anđušić...

...Aleksandar Mitrović...

...Aleksandar Atanasijević.

Ideeeemooooo⬛️⬜️⬛️⬜️⬛️⬜️!!!dobro pamtim sve!!! @bojanjanic4

A photo posted by Aleksandar Atanasijevic (@atanasijevic.aleksandar) on Jun 15, 2015 at 1:15pm PDT

...as well as Jan Vesely and Bogdan Bogdanović.

Visiting my family last night with Jan Vesely ! ! ! #partizan #belgrade
Posted by Bogdan Bogdanovic on Tuesday, June 16, 2015

When these two players entered, Pionir Hall exploded. They got an amazingly warm, loving welcome, that only Pionir Hall can give to its former players.

National team coach Saša Đorđević was watching the game, too, from the VIP-tribune.

(screenshot)

The team started to warm up way before the arrival of the guests. It is always elemental.

Then the match started.
Not even one and a half minutes have passed when Lazić already got his second personal foul. Blažič hit Pavlović on the face, and when he was fouled for this, he just threw the ball to Pavlović.

(photo: sportske.net)

The standing was 4:4. Pavlović, who was burning on 10 000°C already at this point made a giant block - as a result, referees whistled free throw for Zvezda. Not much later Đumić also got his second personal foul (barely 3 minutes passed from the game...). The two teams had a nip-and-tuck game. We switched the standing from 8:11 to 12:11. From 12:15 we equalized with Pavlović’s amazing 3-pointer (15:15), and we even took back the lead (17:15). Duško Vujošević got into heated debates with the referees every now and then, while Andrić was fouled after Kalinić hit him (!!!). Milosavljević was also hit inside Zvezda’s paint, but none of the referees seemed to be interested. Even at this point it was clear we’d have a tough game against a 8-member team. We finished the first quarter with 17:19.

With lots of love, from the fans of Partizan

In the second quarter Zvezda switched the pace of defense to "brutal", while referees kept on giving us fouls. Still we switched from 17:21 with blood, sweat and the scores of Tepić and Mačvan to 22:21, when something happened. There was an upheaval at Zvezda’s bench.
As we got to know, an angry Partizan-fan threw a chair to Jović. Maybe the target wasn’t actually Jović (or maybe he indeed was), nevertheless the chair hit the Zvezda-player’s head. Jović was surrounded immediately by medicals and finally he left the court and walked to the locker-room with an icebag on his head.

Players were a bit confused

The match could eventually continue, Pavlović equalized (23:23), but from this point on things really started to be very tough for Partizan. Referees openly whistled against us, while Zvezda-players switched to moron mode. Blažič intentionally - and brutally - pushed Milutinović to the floor (it was so clear that the referees had to give us a free throw, though they did not whistle technical foul to Blažič), then Williams smashed Dallo brutally. At this point there was no foul or free throw. But when Milutinović tried to block a Zvezda-attack, the referees didn’t just validated the score but gave an extra bonus shot to Zvezda (31:37). Mačvan reduced the difference (34:39), we finished the first half with 36:40.

Mitrović cheering for Partizan

In the half-time Bogdanović was surrounded by journalists

In the half-time break there was some terribly corny music flowing from the speakers, for the great amusement of Grave Diggers. (I do not want to get into details, as I would cross the delicate borders of political correctness - in short, everyone who knows what’s going on will laugh at it as hard as I did.)

In the third quarter we took back the lead with the scores of Tepić and Mačvan (41:40). Then Milosavljević equalized (43:43), while Zirbes was hanging on him with all his weight. Then Tepić was brutally pushed down by Kalinić. No foul, no free throw, nothing happened.

Pavlović couldn’t watch it passively. Zvezda came up for an attack, Pavlović ran up and clashed into Kalinić with full force, so much that Zvezda’s player flew out of the court with an elegant arch. Pavlović immediately got a technical foul. Then Milutinov got an offensive foul, who knows, why. Duško Vujošević complained heavily, referees gave him a technical foul as well, as an answer. After the lot of free throws Zvezda increased their advantage to 43:51, even making the 10-point difference (45:55). We finished the quarter with 51:58.
In the final part we reduced the difference to 2 points with Marinković’s fantastic 3-pointer (he could even throw an extra bonus shot) and Milutinov’s hook. This time Kalinić pushed Dallo to the ground. Dallo stood up, bent very closely to Kalinić, right into his face and whispered there what Zvezda’s player should do and with whom.

My life for a video. Or at least a gif.

The unsportsmanlike behaviour was clear, so we got a free throw. We equalized (58:58). Kalinić switched the moron mode to full force

interesting, while Blažič is this backboneless rat-alike idiot, Kalinić plays the dirty, stuck-up asshole card

Zvezda increased their difference to 58:64. We reduced it to 63:64 with the 3-pointers of Tepić and Pavlović. Zvezda wanted so much to increase the difference, but we kept on hanging on their back. Finally Mačvan equalized (69:69), Marinković was so happy with it that he jumped on Mačvan and hugged him.

Then, in the very last minute Zvezda got a free throw. The first shot got to the ring (69:70).
The second rebounded! We can still make a counter-attack!!! There are a few seconds left!
But no.
Because Kalinić jumped up, caught the rebound and smashed it into the ring with an evil grin.
69:72.
And after all these this rotten bastard ran up to the Grave Diggers after the end buzz and made it clear what a wonderful, fair-play knight sportsman he is.

May it be a terrible example for everyone.
At the other side Partizan-players were desperate.

Marinković was especially down. Here he is comforted by Milutinović

Tepić comforts Pavlović

And if it’s still not enough, the basketball association punished Partizan for that chair-throwing incident. Partizan must pay 200 000 dinars and they must play their next home court match behind closed doors.
Third match will be on Thursday, from 21:00.

(Unmarked photos: Twitter)

KK Partizan - Metalac 86:66 (Serbian SuperLiga semifinal, 1st match)

The plan was about RTS 2 and ArenaSport broadcasting this match live, but finally all fans had to watch the one and only available semi-official KLS-stream, because all TV-channels found a volleyball match more important than the basketball championship semifinal.

At least we know our place in the order of importance.

But first things first, we warmed up.

Someone’s sneaker got pictured

Pavlović is warming up

Edo Murić was watching the game from the auditorium. Very bad news about him is that he must undergo operation with his injured shoulder. Nobody knows when he will recover fully.

Thanks to you, Jenkins, you bastard...

Then we ran out to the court and made the standing quickly to 6:3. At a point Metalac equalized (8:8), but we took back the lead with the baskets of Milutinov and Mačvan (12:8). There was a big fight on the court, with lots of fouls and free throws. We made it to 19:10, Mačvan was very active during the entire quarter. Pavlović’s free throw brought the 10-point difference (28:18). We finished the quarter with 31:20, with Andrić’s 3-pointer just before the buzz.

Of course Miša Tumbas was there giving emotional support to the players

For the second quarter volleyball has ended, we could watch the game on TV (or TV stream). In the beginning Metalac scored (31:22), followed by a long silence. No baskets were scored, the two teams were just strangling each other silently. After more than 3 minutes (the display’s clock on the wall was at 06:50) when Mačvan threw a basket (33:22). The battle was still great, with fouls and free throws. At 35:24 Metalac’s trainer asked for a time-out. After that the guest team scored (35:26), but then Partizan made a 11:2 series. We scored mostly from free throw, but it could be seen clearly our 3-pointer king Andrić that he will make it big this time. The half-time result was 46:28, even at this point we were about to make the 20-point difference.

In the half-time, as always, children were playing on the court

For the third quarter we made the 20 points (50:28).
We continued like this. Pavlović, Marinković, Milutinov and Andrić increased the difference to 60:32. Even the 30-point difference seemed to be achieved. Dallo made a dunk with Pavlović’s assist (68:39). For the last quarter we entered with a 25-point difference (68:43).

Partizan-bench during the match

In the finale Metalac reduced the difference to 68:50, Milutinov settled back the 20-point difference (71:50). He made a slam dunk, while two Metalac-players were hanging on him (73:50). In the meantime Andrić threw a row of 3-pointers with a humble smile (79:55). At 82:65 Đumić was fouled out, then at 84:66, just a few seconds before the end Glišić scored a basket. 86:66. We won with a 20-point difference against Metalac, this way we are leading to 1:0. Next match is tomorrow, from 18:00 (on RTS 2 and ArenaSport 1, hopefully).

(Photos: Twitter)