Partizan - Red Star
ABA League Finals Game 5
Belgrade, June 22, 20:00 CET
The Basketball Expert
Partizan scored only 56 points in the last game of the ABA league Finals. It was by far the worst offensive performance of black and whites this season. They had 19 turnovers, most of which were completely unnecessary. Simply, Zeljko Obradovic's team failed to adapt to the hellish atmosphere in the "Aleksandar Nikolic" hall. During all 40 minutes, Red Star fans chanted derogatory things about Partizan players and head coach, and that definitely affected their performance. On the other hand, Partizan defensively did a lot of good things and if the defense is at a similar level on Thursday, the host will surely have a great chance to win the decisive fifth game.
When it comes to Red Star's offense, the novelty in Game 4 was Facundo Campazzo offensive performance. After three average games by his standards, he was finally at the right level. He scored 21 points and led red and whites to 2-2 in this best-of-five series. Filip Petrusev had some imporant baskets again, while players like Branko Lazic and Stefan Markovic had important defensive tasks. However, in order for Red Star to achieve a triumph in "Stark Arena", they will have to play a perfect game. Now 20,000 fans will be against them and it's not easy to manage emotions in those circumstances. Home team in the ABA League Finals has 22 consecutive wins, which is unheard of in European basketball.
10 years have passed since Partizan won the last title in the ABA League. Zeljko Obradovic returned to his beloved club with the desire to return them to the very top of European basketball. However, he did not win a single trophy in these two years. It is true that black and whites played a notable role in the Euroleague this season, but basketball is played for trophies. Although they lost two games in front of Red Star fans, the defense managed to force the opponents to take difficult shots on several occasions. They failed in offense which almost certainly won't be the case on Thursday. Partizan had the best offensive rating in the Euroleague and it is much easier to hit shots when you have a lot of support behind you. After they screwed up 2-0 against Real Madrid, it would be a sporting tragedy if that happened to them in the ABA League Finals as well. Expect a determined and persistent Partizan who will close the series in their favor this time. There's a reason why it's almost impossible to win at road in the ABA League Finals, and it's doubly difficult in a game that decides the champion.
Pistol Pete
For many reasons, Partizan is the absolute favorite to beat Crvena Zvezda in the decisive fifth match of the ABA League final series, and win the title in the regional competition after more than a decade.
First of all, it is about historical experience. The last time any team in the ABA League final series games managed to achieve a victory away from home was in 2018, when the Montenegrin team Buducnost Voli made a big surprise and achieved a triumph in Zvezda's arena.
Crvena Zvezda won the titles in the last three editions of the ABA finals, but in all three cases during the finals, they failed to win on the away court. In all three cases, the result in the final was 3-2 in victories. The last time "red and whites" achieved an away victory in the final was in 2017, against Cedevita (then the score in the final was 3-0).
In the previous match of the final, a 68:56 loss away from home on Tuesday (June 20), Partizan obviously played energetically "with the brakes on" at the end of the match. The players of the legendary coach Zeljko Obradovic knew, that they certainly have a great chance in this decisive fifth match in front of their fans. And that factor - more than 20,000 home fans in Belgrade Arena, who will create exceptional pressure and be a wind at the back of many people's best shooting team this season in Europe - can be decisive.
It can be said that Partizan won the opening two games of the final series, on their home court, relatively routinely - 88:80 on June 13 and 87:78 two days later. In those games, Partizan players found an attacking rhythm early on, and obviously played better in transition. In the previous two games, on the ground of Crvena Zvezda, the problem for Partizan was obviously a large number of turnovers.
It seems that in the victories of 91:78 on June 18 and 68:56 two days ago, Zvezda found a way to stop the key shooting options of Partizan - above all, the excellent guard Kevin Punter. He scored only ten points in the previous game, and power forward LeDay was reduced to only nine points. Both of them are expected to play in front of their fans significantly more relaxed and inspired.
Also, an important factor in the game will be whose tall players will get into trouble with fouls earlier. Partizan has an obvious advantage when it comes to the quality and strength of the centers - Smailagic and Lessort are in excellent shape and play well, especially in front of the home fans.
The chance for Crvena Zvezda may be that the great Argentinian guard Vildoza is now fully recovered (in the first match of the final he did not even play, in the next one he performed with a reduced role) - it was seen how important he was in the previous victory. Also, the famous playmaker Campazzo finally found his shooting rhythm in the fourth match of the finals and will have to be inspired, if this team wants to have any chance of winning this match.
Nevertheless, Partizan remains the absolute favorite for the fifth match of the finals, and that is how the basketball public in Serbia and the region treats it. Both teams will certainly play in the Euroleague next season, so the stake is "only" the ABA league championship throne, for the clubs that currently have six titles each.