Euroleague Basketball: Nancy already under pressure

Basketball

AFP - After initial setbacks Cantu (69-80), Nancy no longer has any room for error against Bilbao, received Thursday (20.45) during the second day of the Euroleague Basketball Men -ball. With eight games still to play after this one, it might seem premature to speculate on the future and the champion of France. The Sluc have ample time to recover from the first two defeats. Yes, but here it is: Cantu and Bilbao are a priori the two teams are relegated to the locals as behind to hope to become the first French team since Pau-Orthez in 2007, reaching the Top 16.

Other clubs in Group A, Fenerbahce, Olympiakos Vitoria and seem well above the rest. Although the Greeks have done something wrong last week in ... Bilbao, winning 76-61. The indication that this is not a small team that comes Thursday night in Lorraine, while Bilbao is participating for the first time in the Euroleague. The Basque club last season reached the final of the Spanish Championship, after having eliminated Real Madrid in the semifinals, and had only yielded to the great FC Barcelona, ​​with no demerits. "Bilbao is now even better with the arrival of new players, good players who have experience in the Euroleague. After their victory against Olympiakos, who can doubt of their potential," says coach Nancy Jean Luc Monschau.
While inside the Belgian Axel Hervelle, injured his knee before the Euro in Lithuania, is hardly restored and should leave a few minutes from the bench, the team coached by Greek Fotios Katsirakis has many other advantages . 

Always dangerous offensively, Spanish winger Alex Mumbrú should provide an interesting challenge to Nicolas Batum. Croatian winger Marko Banic, MVP (best player) of the Eurocup in 2009-2010, was the leading scorer (23 points) against Olympiakos. But Nancy shall not overlook another player, who had many hardships to the team of France in the Euro: the leader of Latvia Janis Blum, author of 32 points against the Blues. To beat the Spanish, Nancy must first be more regular than Cantu. In Italy, he managed the first twenty minutes of top flight. But Cantu had then found a way to slow the tempo of the match and were locals as runaway.

"We're a little disappointed because we had the means to beat them at home," observes Adrian Moerman. "But you learn ... There is still a little young in the Euroleague." "It will lose less balls (20 to Cantu, Ed) and play better in the second half," takes the power forward. The private Sluc will always be the young pivot Abdelkader Sylla. Injured left wrist, it is still available for two weeks.