20 October, 2020
09 May, 2021
33 Kingsley Moses (AEK)
09/03/2021
News
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Play-Offs Week 2 Wednesday games preview

MIES (Switzerland) - Wednesday sees the only two Play-Offs participants that had still to enter postseason action, AEK and Nizhny Novgorod, finally make their debut in Group K.

Here's a closer look at what to expect from the three-game slate on Wednesday which concludes Week 2 action in the 2020-21 Basketball Champions League Play-Offs.

AEK (0-0) vs. Turk Telekom (1-0) -- Group K, 18:30 CET

  • AEK are coming off a comfy 98-76 over BAXI Messologi in the Greek Basket League on Saturday, behind 20 points and 5 assists from newly-arrived Daryl Macon. The Wednesday game will be Macon's BCL debut with AEK, after he played for Galatasaray in the Regular Season.

  • Turk Telekom meanwhile suffered a 99-77 loss to Fenerbahce in Turkish BSL league action on Sunday, despite 24 points from Kyle Wiltjer.

  • AEK have a 7-1 record in their eight most recent home games in the BCL, with the only defeat in that span coming in the 2020 Final against Hereda San Pablo Burgos. The Greek team averaged 90 points per game over those eight encounters.

  • Turk Telekom have won 14 of their last 17 games in the BCL, with all three losses in that span coming on the road.

  • AEK average a league-low 4.8 fast-break points per game while Turk Telekom score a joint league-low 10.9 points off turnovers.

  • AEK’s Keith Langford and Turk Telekom’s Kyle Wiltjer are leading the league in scoring since the start of the 2019-20 season. Langford has scored a combined 449 points while Wiltjer has scored a combined 396 points.

  • AEK's Yanick Moreira will miss the Wednesday game due to injury. The AEK big man is the all-time second rebounder in BCL Play-Offs history, with 68 boards, and is 20 rebounds shy of tying Tim Abromaitis for first place.

Casademont Zaragoza (1-0) vs. Brose Bamberg (0-1) -- Group L, 20:00 CET

  • Zaragoza are coming off a 100-95 home defeat to Joventut Badalona in Spanish Liga Endesa action on Saturday, despite 21-point contributions from each of their new signings, Jacob Wiley and Elias Harris.

  • Bamberg were not in domestic league action this weekend as their scheduled game against Wurzburg was re-scheduled to the German BBL's health and safety protocol.

  • Zaragoza will play their third game against a German team in the BCL, after losing twice to Telekom Baskets Bonn in 2019-20.

  • This is Bamberg's fourth trip to Spain since they joined the BCL with the German team winning two of their previous three games in the Iberian country.

  • Zaragoza scored more than 90 points in each of their last three BCL games, as many times as in their previous 23 games in the league.

  • Bamberg have the best perimeter defense in the league this season, as they give up six three-pointers per game on average.

  • Bamberg give up a league-best (fewest) 1.02 points per possession.

  • Zaragoza's Rodrigo San Miguel is three assists shy of leapfrogging J’Covan Brown for first place on the all-time assists leaders list in the BCL Play-Offs. The Spanish point guard has 60 career assists in the BCL postseason while Brown has 62.

  • Bamberg's Shevon Thompson has posted a combined seven double-doubles in points and rebounds since the start of the 2019-20 season, more than any other player in the same span. Thompson registered his first six double-doubles with Filou Oostende last season and the latest in Bamberg's loss to ERA Nymburk last week.

SIG Strasbourg (0-1) vs. Nizhny Novgorod (0-0) -- Group K, 20:30 CET

  • Strasbourg have not seen French Jeep Elite action since February 6th, so their most recent official game was last week's visit to Turk Telekom in the Group K premiere, which ended in an 83-76 loss.

  • Nizhny on the other hand were in VTB United League action on Sunday and came back from a 22-point deficit to snatch a 75-73 win over Astana at home, behind 17 points from Kasey Shepherd.

  • Strasbourg started off this BCL campaign on a 4-1 record, tying their best ever start in the five years of competition history, but are currently on a two-game losing skid.

  • This will be Nizhny's fourth BCL game in France and they are still to taste victory in that country. The Russian team has never scored 75 or more points in any of those three defeats in France.

  • Strasbourg are leading the league in offensive rebounding with 14.9 boards per game. They also have the highest offensive rebounding rate, as they collect 38.1% of boards available on the offensive glass.

  • Strasbourg's Bonzie Colson is the league's third-leading scorer with 19.9 points per game and the only player on the top-10 scorers list to have collected 5 or more rebounds in every one of his games this season.

  • Nizhny's Artem Komolov scored 20 or more points in each of his last two BCL games, while he didn't have a single 20-point game in any of his previous 34 appearances in the competition.