Sportando European Team of the Week: Week of June 24

We say “au revoir” for 2012-13 to the final two European domestic leagues and the NBA in this edition of the Sportando European Team of the Week. The top performances in Spain and Italy’s championship-clinching games plus one vanquished San Antonio Spur make this roster, the last (sort of; see below) for professional club play this season: an appropriate salute to six storied clubs (Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Montepaschi Siena, Virtus Roma and of course those Spurs and Heat) and a lot of interesting hoops.

We’ll start things off with Bobby Brown, G, Montepaschi Siena. Bobby is not afraid to take control of big games and/or tee off from everywhere in said games, and he demonstrated the principle in the Serie A title clincher last Wednesday. Though just 2-of-9 on threes, Brown still managed a team-high 18 points and, teamed with David Moss’ 11/9, ended this series in five. Siena’s seventh consecutive Italian title may well be beyond ho-hum news, but at least one of Europe’s most watchable players did not disappoint.

Official video: Siena with the win and the championship – again

Sarunas Jasikevicius, G, and Joe Ingles, SF, FC Barcelona. Barcelona dug themselves a hole early in Liga Endesa championship series game five and never truly recovered, despite fleetingly holding a one-point lead in the second quarter. In fact, the only reason while the final line appears so close – and why the Blaugrana just wouldn’t go away against a Real Madrid side who seemingly created 10-point runs at will – is down to Ingles and Jasikevicius.

Ingles helped keep Barca in the game in his 26 minutes, ending with a surprising 25 points and six rebounds. Why surprising? To this point in the Spanish playoffs, Ingles had managed a cumulative 3-of-12 *from inside the arc* and 8-of-26 overall. A thing of beauty, too, was the teamwork with…

Saras. What can be said of yet another performance from a guy whose career highlight reel must be a week long by now? Twice when Barcelona looked sunk, the 37-year-old (37!) vet entered the game to bring his team back from the brink with deadshot shooting and swagger; in defiance of statistics lovers, Saras’ 23 points of 6-of-9 shooting plus a perfect eight on free throws was even more impressive than the numbers indicate. We’re just happy Jasikevicius made the Sportando Team of the Week proper rather than as a retirement notice in the “honorable mention” section…

ACB video: “¡Qué gran partido de Joe Ingles y Saras Jasikevicius!”

As noted in last week’s column, Felipe Reyes, F, has been a streamlined model of efficiency for Real Madrid throughout the playoffs and especially against Barcelona. Reyes turned in yet another efficient performance in game five, contributing 14 points and drawing a whopping seven personal fouls in under 21 minutes of playing time; he was awarded the Liga Endesa finals MVP trophy despite never playing more than 22 in a single match of the five-game set.

ACB video: Reyes cranks out the highlights, earns trophies

Ganai Lawal, PF/C, Virtus Roma. In a losing effort, Lawal was nevertheless awesome for Roma with a 30 PIR based on 20 points, nine rebounds, three steal and a crazy 10 fouls drawn. Despite dashed title hopes, the showing capped a fine season for the big man; may the speculation on his destination for 2013-14 begin!

Video: For interested parties, Lawal’s 2012-13 clip compilation

Sixth man:

Boris Diaw, C, San Antonio Spurs because who out there had a harder week than the big Frenchman? After not playing a minute in game three, Diaw was relied upon heavily in games five and six plus a bit in seven to guard the world’s best player. Hard to imagine what Lebron might have accomplished in those games without Boris manning up for 20 minutes or so…

Video: One to show the grandchildren


Next week: The Sportando European All-Playoffs Team

– compiled by Os Davis 

Os Davis writes/posts/tweets for the ESPN TrueHoop Network site BallinEurope.com. He also co-produces the mostly European basketball-centered weekly podcast Taking the Charge with heinnews.com, and watches way too much basketball through online subscription packages and dodgy live streams.

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TAKING THE CHARGE PODCAST

http://www.heinnews.com/category/taking-the-charge-podcast/