ATHENS (Greece) - ERA Nymburk decided to insert Petr Benda into the starting lineup, perhaps raising a few eyebrows in the process. The reason for the decision became apparent very quickly. For their first score Nymburk went to him on the short roll where he can knock them down and draw Moereira (AEK's rim protection) out,

Yannick Moreira showed his ability to make plays on the short roll down the other end. AEK used him in a high volume of this exact action where the short-roll turns into a "Free Hit" pick-and-roll or DHO on the reversal. This time Gkikas was the beneficiary.

Nymburk came out very strong to start the first quarter and did what they do on the offensive glass. Sequences like this are exactly what they are known for and exactly what needed to do. 

The confidence in their execution was flowing from getting the dirty work done. During a Free Throw at 5:50 Amiel called "Elbow" and Nymburk executed. AEK had clearly decided early to use their experience to draw fouls. In this case, Gkikas hitting the deck resulted in a correct no-call and Harding announced himself in the game. He would go on to make a very positive impression.

The margins are, however, always thin when you play a team with the offensive firepower of AEK. The last thing needed is giving a player like Keith Langford an easy look to get going. Nymburk played great pick-and-roll defense on this clip but then over-helped from the corner, a cardinal sin when you are helping off Langford - especially when the nail defender in front of Prewitt had already walled off the ball-handler.

Nymburk outscored AEK 15-8 in the first five minutes of the first quarter, they finished the quarter only 23-21 up and Langford getting going on the five-minute mark had started to swing the momentum already.

We also started to see one of AEK's adjustments for the game. During the Regular Season you would not have seen this AEK team switch the ball screen. Today they had clearly decided they were happy to let the likes of Slaughter switch and stay with Nymburk's guards. It worked too, in both clips below, Nymburk's offense stalled after Slaughter switched.

As you'd expect Nymburk won the battle of fastbreak points but when AEK did run, they made it count. The play below Zisis blocked Rupnik's shot and started the break. Moreira's trailing rim run sucked Chrysikopoulos' defender into the paint and AEK were clinical. AEK took the lead with this play, they never relinquished it.

We also started to see Nymburk's game plan for one of AEK's bread and butter actions. If you have watched AEK this season you would have seen how they love to use a simple drag screen to hunt out the matchup they want. Usually with Langford as the screener hoping to post up a smaller guard on a switch. In the clip below it was Chrysikopoulos setting the screen to match up on the post.

Nymburk instantly went to a 2-3 zone. It wasn't a coverage that was particularly successful. In this clip Chrysikopoulos found Moreira as the center of the zone doubled. The threat of Lojeski in the weakside corner was enough to cause Hruban to be indecisive and left Moreira open in the guts of the zone.

One player that showed some of the best of himself for Nymburk was Haden Dalton. The wiry American made his presence felt on both ends. First in the clip below he matched up with Langford on the defensive end. Not many players that height have been able to stop Langford in his favorite area of the floor.

Then in the third he completely sold the backdoor cut and did what he has done all season with an absolute hammer with his right hand.

Earlier in the game, AEK had got inside the Nymburk zone to get Moreira an easy two.  Nymburk never quite got that zone coverage right. In the third quarter, Nymburk used the zone against a baseline out of bounds for AEK. The Queen moved the ball to shift the zone, then on the drive, watch how #3 Prewitt steps in this time to prevent the inside pass to Maciulis and leaves Jankovic wide open in the corner. 

In the fourth quarter, AEK went to the Langford and Rice pick-and-roll that we had expected to see. As expected, Nymburk switched and then dropped into a zone. And again, AEK moved the ball and this time Dalton overhelped and left Jankovic open in the corner.

In reality, once AEK got themselves a 10 point lead, they never really looked like they were likely to let Nymburk back in the game. Oren Amiel's squad was never going away and through their effort on the glass and some very impressive individual performances from Harding, Dalton, and Hruban in particular, they managed to stay within touching distance. 

For AEK it was almost the ideal start to their assault on the Final 8 title. They managed to find some rhythm and some new solutions defensively. The main players that they needed to get going, did. Rice, Langford, and Lojeski were excellent but still gave the feeling they have another couple of gears to go up. Jankovic and Moreira made important contributions in exactly the areas you'd hope they would. And even the added bonus of Maciulis and Gkikas making plays on the defensive end that helped to change the momentum.

Tactically we saw exactly what AEK are going to be like and in the main, they were exactly what they were expected to be. Ilias Papatheodorou has this squad playing to its strengths and in a self-sufficient state - he won't have to make any major tweaks to anything they do. Perhaps the only question mark raised would have been the way that rookie Jerrick Harding was able to score as often as he did in the second half. Up next is Casademont Zaragoza and as we saw with their win over Iberostar Tenerife, they are a whole different level of threat.