17 October, 2023
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06/11/2023
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20 things to look out for in Tuesday's games

 

MIES (Switzerland) - Week 4 of the Basketball Champions League Regular Season gets underway on Tuesday with four games, which see two teams hoping to leap to a 3-0 start and two others trying to avoid sliding to 0-3.

Here are 20 things you need to know ahead of the four Tuesday games:

Darüssafaka Lassa (2-0) v Cholet Basket (1-1)

Group C - 18:00 CET - Istanbul, Turkiye

Vojtech Hruban, the first player to reach 1,000 points in the BCL, has a good scoring record against Turkish teams

● Darüssafaka have won their last three home games in the BCL, despite being in a losing position at half-time in each of those encounters. In fact, seven of their 12 home wins in the BCL came after trailing on the scoreboard after 20 minutes.

● Cholet are still looking for their first victory on the road in the BCL, as they have lost all four road games they have played in the competition so far. The French team have given up 83.3 points per game on the road, compared with 75.8 points per game at home.

● Darüssafaka made exactly 11 three-pointers in each of their two games in the BCL this season. They had made more than 10 triples in just two of their previous 35 games in the competition. The Turkish team won three of the four BCL games in which they made more than 10 threes.

● All three of Darüssafaka's leading scorers in their most recent BCL game (against Lenovo Tenerife) came off the bench: David McCormack had 18 points, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman had 16 and Mason Jones scored 13. Darüssafaka's had a total of 60 bench points in that game. In fact, there have been only three BCL games since January 2023 in which a team's second unit contributed 60 or more points, and Darüssafaka's second unit was involved in two of them (also had 61 against UCAM Murcia in March 2023).

● Cholet's Vojtech Hruban currently has 1,001 BCL career points and is the only player so far to have scored 1000+ points in the competition. The Czech international scored more than 10 points in each of his previous eight games against Turkish sides in the BCL, and averaged 5.5 rebounds per game in that span.

MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg (1-1) v Banco di Sardegna Sassari (0-2)

Group D - 20:00 CET - Ludwigsburg, Germany


Will the high-flying Jayvon Graves score 20 points in back-to-back games for the first time in his BCL career?

● This will be the fifth BCL encounter between Ludwigsburg and Sassari, with each team winning two of the previous four games and scoring 75+ points in every matchup.

● Ludwigsburg won their most recent game at home in the BCL (82-78 v King Szczecin) and will try to win back-to-back home games for the first time since January-March 2022, when they won two home games in a row. The German side scored more than 80 points in six of their last seven home games in the BCL.

● Sassari have a 1-9 record in their last 10 road games in the BCL, and they have given up 90.8 points per game in that span. Sassari have won just once on four BCL trips to Germany, but that lone victory was precisely against Ludwigsburg, a 78-75 success back in January 2017 (BCL Season 1).

● Ludwigsburg's Jayvon Graves has averaged 20.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists in the four BCL games in which he played at least 30 minutes. He is coming off a 22-point showing against King Szczecin and, if he repeats that feat on Tuesday, it would be the first time he scores 20+ points in consecutive BCL games.

● Sassari's Ousmane Diop has tallied 34 points in his two BCL games this season, after scoring a total of 28 points in his first nine games in the competition. Diop had a BCL personal-high seven rebounds in Sassari's most recent road game, at King Szczecin.

Unicaja (2-0) v Peristeri bwin (1-1)

Group A - 20:30 CET - Malaga, Spain

If Joe Ragland steps out on Tuesday, he will be appearing in his 50th BCL game

● Unicaja have won six of their seven BCL Regular Season games at home. They gave up fewer than 75 points in each of those six wins, while they gave up 92 points in that lone defeat (92-82 v Dinamo Sassari in December 2022).

● Peristeri have a 1-7 record in their last eight road games in the BCL and gave up more than 85 points in each of their last six BCL road games. Peristeri are winless on their BCL trips to Spain (lost two games, both against Lenovo Tenerife) and are yet to score 70 points in a game in that country.

● Peristeri have the best defense in the third quarter in this season's BCL, giving up only 13.5 points on average in that frame. Historically, the third has always been Peristeri's best quarter defensively in the BCL, as they give up 18.6 on average in the third frame since they joined the competition.

● Unicaja's Dylan Osetkowski scored a BCL career-high 20 points in the Gameday 2 win against Le Mans Sarthe Basket, leading his team in scoring. He made 4 three-pointers in that game, as many as in his previous seven BCL games combined.

● Peristeri's Joe Ragland is poised to make his 50th appearance in the BCL on Tuesday (the league leaders, Tim Abromaitis and Petr Benda, have 86). The American point guard has averaged 9 assists per game over his last eight road games in the BCL, and dished 10+ assists in four of those.

Le Mans Sarthe Basket (1-1) v Falco Vulcano Szombathely (0-2)

Group A - 20:30 CET - Le Mans, France


D'Shawn Schwartz has established himself as solid scoring option for Le Mans 

● Le Mans have won their last four BCL Regular Season games at home, with those games being decided by an average point differential of 16.5. The French team have won six of their seven home games in which they scored 80 or more points.

● Falco have lost their last seven road games in the BCL. Their most recent road win was an 89-83 victory at AEK in Athens, in December 2021. The Hungarian side are 0-3 in the three BCL games they have played in France, giving up 88.7 points per game in those three encounters.

● Le Mans have made exactly 23 free-throws in each of their two BCL games this season. Interestingly, they had made 20+ free-throws in only one of their previous 32 games in the competition. The French side are shooting 90.2 percent from the foul line this season, after averaging 73.4 percent from the line over their two previous BCL campaigns.

● D'Shawn Schwartz is the only player to have scored in double digits in each of Le Mans' first two BCL games this season (13 points against Peristeri and 20 against Unicaja); Schwartz is a perfect 6-of-6 from the stripe so far in the competition.

● Falco's Matt Tiby scored a team-high 16 points against Peristeri bwin, his new BCL-career high after eight appearances in the competition. Tiby made 4 three-pointers in that game, as many as in his previous six BCL games combined.