EuroLeague Weekly Dose: Week 8

  • Last Updated on November 25, 2025 7:51 am by André Lemos | Published: November 25, 2025

    The Games of week 8:

    Anadolu Efes vs FC Barcelona

    Istanbul hosted the opening game of the round, and the spotlight was on the start of a new Xavi Pascual era on Barcelona’s bench.

    The game opened slow. Both teams struggled to get shots to fall until Isaia Cordinier, in an isolation, scored the first points of the night. Barcelona looked to feed Clyburn in the low post, but it was Vesely who made the early impact, scoring 8 of the team’s first 11 points without a miss. Anadolu had a different plan: attack Barcelona’s bigs in the pick-and-roll, and it worked well enough for them to lead 19-18 at the end of the first quarter.

    The second quarter kept the same pattern. Baskets were traded until Nico Laprovittola went on a 5-0 run. Efes went to the middle PnR to stop the bleeding but managed only 2 points before Barcelona responded with a 7-2 run, capped by a Hernangomez score that forced a Kokoskov time-out. Efes found ways to score, with Cordinier adding 8 points in the final five minutes, but Barcelona’s bigs, Hernangomez in particular, kept them honest, helping the Culés to a 46-35 halftime lead. The numbers told the story: Barcelona had six offensive rebounds, turned the ball over only 4 times versus Efes’ 8, and racked up 13 assists compared to Efes’ 7.

    Efes struck first in the second half. Loyd hit a 2+1 to cut the lead to 5 and drew Shengelia’s third foul. Shengelia, who scored Barcelona’s first 4 points of the quarter, wasn’t enough to stop Efes’ surge, including a Dessert lob dunk off a middle PnR. Efes dominated the quarter 23-9, finishing ahead 58-55. Barcelona struggled: four turnovers, only three made field goals, and 0/7 from three.

    The fourth quarter became a back-and-forth battle. Pascual drew from his playbook, with Brizuela hitting a three and Willy Hernangomez active in the paint, putting Barcelona back in front with 7:15 to play. Efes answered, Osmani converting a tap-in after a missed free throw to push the lead to five. Barcelona rallied, taking a one-point lead with just over two minutes remaining. Loyd tied it with a split pair at the line with 1:50 remaining. Satoransky hit a corner three to break the tie briefly, but Dessert calmly made two free throws, cutting the deficit to one. On the next trip, Cordinier drove, drew a foul with .3 seconds to go, and calmly hit both free throws to seal a 74-73 win.

    Efes had five players in double figures, a depth advantage that proved decisive. For Barcelona, only the bigs showed up statistically: Vesely with 16 and Hernangomez with 10. In the end, Efes’ collective scoring and late-game composure edged out the Catalans in a game full of adjustments, strategies and drama.

     

    Asvel vs Monaco

    Some games don’t unfurl so much as they clank their way into existence, and this one opened with the full symphony of misfires and miscues. Both teams stumbled out of the gate, but the spotlight naturally swung toward Thomas Heurtel, playing his first EuroLeague minutes since his departure, coming off the bench to stabilize things… and instead bringing equal parts clarity and chaos. Monaco, for their part, played with all the urgency of a Tuesday walkthrough. Five turnovers and just 14 points in the first quarter told the story.

    Asvel, though? They were staying afloat by doing the basketball equivalent of bailing water with both hands. They snagged eight offensive rebounds in the first quarter alone, because creating a shot off the dribble was basically a myth at that point. Monaco’s defensive approach was simple: go under every pick-and-roll. Shaq Harrison can’t hurt you from deep, and none of his teammates looked interested in disproving that (0% from three in the quarter).

    Monaco finally woke up in the second, more intensity, more juice and finally some threes falling. Only one turnover in the quarter, even though Asvel kept switching every screen with a taller, mobile lineup. But all that switching opened the paint like a gift box. Mike James tore apart mismatches, dragged Asvel’s centers into foul trouble, and Monaco just kept pounding it inside.

    Asvel’s offensive issues? Same script, just louder. Fifteen turnovers by halftime.
    Zero made threes (0/13).
    Eight made twos (8/24).
    Their real scoring engine was the offensive glass: another seven O-boards in the second quarter, 15 in the half. And, to their credit, they went after every loose ball like it owed them money.

    Halftime brought the quote of the night. Asked what Asvel was missing, Pierric Poupet shrugged it off with a wonderfully blunt: “just play basket.”
    In a way, he wasn’t wrong.

    But the third quarter stretched Monaco’s cushion. The threes kept falling at a respectable clip, and while Asvel found a little more scoring, they couldn’t string together stops. Every basket they scratched out was answered by Monaco with ease. Heurtel checked back in and this time brought that veteran steering wheel, pairing nicely with EL rookie Vautier to give Asvel’s pick-and-roll game some actual life. He even hit Asvel’s first three of the night, on attempt number 18 to trim the deficit to 20.

    Still, the switching defense kept hurting them, giving Monaco matchup advantages on every trip. Asvel scored 19 in the quarter, which was nearly their entire first-half output but they surrendered 30.

    The fourth quarter? A remix of the previous 30 minutes. Asvel made just two more threes the rest of the way, Monaco didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard either, but the divide in talent and creation was baked into every possession. Asvel had more offensive rebounds, more second-chance opportunities, and even took fewer shots than Monaco, but they had to work twice as hard to get anything clean. Monaco didn’t.

    And that’s the problem. Poupet deserves goals loftier than just “exist in EuroLeague,” but this roster isn’t doing him many favors.

    Monaco brought production from the entire roster. Mike James and Nikola Mirotic both finished with 12 and plenty of teammates chipped in. Asvel’s top scorers? Seven points: Heurtel, Seljaas and Watson. That’s the whole list.

    Sometimes a game is defined by tactics or adjustments or late-game orchestration.
    This one was defined by talent and the gap in it.

     

    Real Madrid vs Zalgiris

    Madrid doesn’t always give you drama, but when it does, it delivers the full telenovela package. Real Madrid and Zalgiris turned the biggest game of the round into a gripping, late-night roller coaster, lead changes, wild swings, late-game shot-making and a finish that felt like it was running on caffeine and chaos.

    From the opening tip, Zalgiris had a clear idea: drag Walter Tavares into space, force him to defend laterally, and see if they could pry Real out of their comfort zones. Real countered by leaning heavily on the Spain pick-and-roll, letting Facundo Campazzo run the show like he had the remote in his hand. He accounted for 14 of Real’s first 18 points before heading to the bench, directing traffic, hunting mismatches and spearheading the pressure defense that helped open an 18–8 cushion with just over three minutes left in the first.

    But the moment Campazzo sat, Zalgiris exhaled and punched back with an 8-4 run to trim the quarter deficit to six. They shot just 1-of-6 from deep, while Real’s entire offensive identity in the first 10 minutes could be summarized as: attack the rim, attack the rim again, shoot one three, repeat. It worked well enough for a 22–16 edge.

    The second quarter opened with a Real Madrid burst, two Zalgiris turnovers in two possessions, a quick 4-0 run, and an emergency timeout from coach Masiulis. The reset worked: Zalgiris nailed back-to-back threes. But Francisco picked up his second foul with 6:10 left, and everything unraveled. Theo Maledon carved up the Lithuanian defense, getting downhill with ease, and Real entered halftime up 43-37 without hitting a single three (0/4). Zalgiris’ five live-ball turnovers in the half were the kind that turn coaches prematurely gray.

    Then came the swing.

    Zalgiris stormed out of the locker room with an 8–1 run in two minutes, finally grabbing the lead. Real stopped the bleeding with an Abalde three, their first of the night, but Tubelis took over the quarter. He bottled up Lyles, scored efficiently, and powered Zalgiris to a 54-47 advantage with just under five minutes in the period. Then Francisco picked up his third foul. Back to the bench he went. And back came Real Madrid.

    Sergio Scariolo dusted off the 3-2 zone, and it worked like a charm: a 10-4 Real run built off Zalgiris’ lack of downhill creation without Francisco. After 30 minutes: 62-62. A deadlock with the tension of a Champions League knockout.

    Then came the fourth, where both teams started landing punches like it was the final round of a title fight. No empty possessions until the 4:55 mark, a Francisco turnover and Maledon and Campazzo took turns rewriting the script. Maledon manipulated the Zalgiris defense like a seasoned puppeteer, but then Campazzo went full supernova: a scoring burst that pushed Real ahead by eight with 2:22 remaining, forcing another Zalgiris timeout.

    The response? Back-to-back threes. Lead cut to two. And still Campazzo kept coming.

    Real nudged it to a two-possession game, but Francisco drilled a quick three. Maledon answered with a 2+1. Ulanovas responded with his 2+1. Suddenly the gap was back to one. Then came the chaos sequence: Real came up empty, a controversial offensive foul on Lo, two technicals on the Zalgiris bench and two made free throws later the lead ballooned to three. Lyles added two more. Real by five.

    Francisco, because of course, hit another three. Two-point game, 10 seconds left.

    Zalgiris gambled on the trap, and Real punished it with a wide-open Lyles layup. But Francisco simply refused to blink, splashing yet another three to cut it back to one with 2.6 seconds left. Campazzo was fouled, missed both, and the entire building inhaled as Brazdeikis launched a prayer from behind half court.

    It missed.
    Real Madrid survived.
    100-99.

    A heavyweight brawl, one more reminder of how fragile margins can be when stars start trading haymakers. Madrid got the win, but Zalgiris left the floor with nothing to regret, except maybe being born a few centimeters short on that final heave.

     

    Key Performances of the Past Week:

    Sylvain Francisco vs Real Madrid

    Sometimes a performance is so outrageous, so defiant, so bursting with competitive fire that even the home crowd, one of the toughest, most demanding fanbases in Europe, just throws its hands up and applauds. That was Sylvain Francisco in Madrid.

    The box score says 33 points and 11 assists, a monster double-double in one of the hardest arenas to thrive in. But the numbers only hint at the electricity he generated. He was super efficient, hitting 3-of-6 inside the arc and an absurd 7-of-9 from deep, including three daggers in the final 80 seconds that felt like he was trying to single-handedly pry the game open with a crowbar. Every time Real tried to breathe, Francisco threw another punch.

    The playmaking was just as sharp. His pick-and-roll reads sliced Real’s coverages wide open, touch the paint, collapse the defense, kick to shooters, drop it off to the big. Rinse, repeat, panic the defense. He made it look easy, which is the ultimate sign that it very much wasn’t.

    And then the moment that elevates a great stat night into a great memory: when Francisco fouled out, the Real Madrid fans, the same ones who boo legends when they feel like it, rose to their feet and clapped. Respecting greatness when they saw it. Respecting a performance that almost stole the game from them. Respecting a guard who played like he had no intention of leaving that court quietly.

    A loss on the standings. A win for anyone who loves competitive basketball. A night where Francisco didn’t just play, he owned the spotlight.

     

    Standings Watch:

    Partizan’s season has entered that uneasy stage where fans stop obsessively refreshing the standings and start studying them like war maps. Four wins in twelve games, buried in the bottom four and already two games off the Play-In pace. But it’s not just the gap, it’s the traffic jam of teams stacked between them and those postseason lifelines. Partizan doesn’t just need wins; they need a minor continental miracle.

    The numbers don’t offer much comfort. Bottom five in both offensive and defensive rating, that’s a double-red flag usually reserved for rebuilding teams, not a Zeljko Obradovic roster brimming with expectations and pedigree. They’re struggling to generate efficient offense, string together stops, or even look like the kind of bully they were supposed to be.

    This is the point in the season that forces the existential question: can Zeljko pull another rabbit out of the hat? If anyone in Europe has earned the right to inspire late-season faith, it’s him. But right now, Partizan isn’t just losing games, they’re losing the underlying statistical battles that indicate whether a turnaround is sustainable.

    The Grobari still believe he can fix it. The standings? They’re starting to whisper that time is running out.

     

    Week 9 Games to Watch:

    Hapoel vs Real Madrid

    Week 9 doesn’t ease you in, it throws you straight into a heavyweight matchup with real “circle this on the calendar” energy. Hapoel, the lone leader of the competition and the team playing the most complete basketball so far, gets Real Madrid at home. That’s not just a game; that’s a tone-setter for the entire round.

    Hapoel has been a machine to this point, sporting a league-best +10 NET Rating and looking every bit like the team that understands exactly who it is and how it wants to play. They impose their rhythm, they control possessions, and when they hit their stride, opponents spend entire quarters trying to claw their way back to neutral.

    Real Madrid, meanwhile, arrives in that familiar space where their defense is sturdy but the offense still feels like it’s tapping the brakes. And yet, this is the part that feels almost unfair, Los Blancos live for nights like this. They’ve built an entire decade of dominance on showing up in high-pressure environments, absorbing the punch from a challenger, and responding with a deliberate, almost inevitable slow burn of winning basketball.

    So here we are: the early juggernaut against the perennial champion, the team with all the metrics vs. the team with all the muscle memory. Who comes out on top in this can’t-miss game?

     

    Crvena Zvezda vs Olympiacos

    Belgrade Arena is going to sound like it’s running on jet engines when Crvena Zvezda hosts Olympiacos in Round 13, and for good reason. This is a matchup with real standings weight behind it, second vs. third, two teams staring directly at each other across the top tier of the table, fully aware that this isn’t just another midseason checkpoint. Games like this linger. They shape tiebreakers, playoff routes, and the psychology of who actually belongs in that upper crust.

    Both teams are built from the back forward: elite defensive groups that bend games in their direction possession by possession, then layer on an offense that, while not flashy for the sake of it, is comfortably above average and ruthlessly efficient when it matters. There’s a kind of mirrored tension here, two rosters that pride themselves on toughness, discipline, and forcing opponents into uncomfortable decisions.

    Put that inside a Belgrade crowd and you have a recipe for one of those EuroLeague nights where the atmosphere becomes part of the scouting report. This is exactly the sort of game that rewards every fan who cancels plans and settles in.

     

    What’s at Stake:

    Dubai BC is hovering just outside the Play-In spots at 5-7, and the question on everyone’s mind is simple: when will Dzanan Musa step back onto the court? The Bosnian guard has been day-to-day for a while now, yet the team has managed to stay afloat without their main star. That’s no small feat for a first-year EuroLeague squad.

    Offensively, Dubai has been humming, but Musa’s return could unlock another level. His PnR game isn’t just about scoring, it stretches defenses, creates space for the bigs, and takes some pressure off the supporting cast. The timing couldn’t be more crucial: one win separates them from a Play-In berth, and having Musa back sooner rather than later might be the difference between a first-season playoff run and a midtable finish.

    It’s a mix of anticipation and urgency. Can Musa return in time to steer this Dubai squad into uncharted waters? For fans and the league alike, it’s a storyline worth watching.

     

    EuroLeague Headlines:

    Virtus is making their home court a fortress. Five games, five wins, undefeated at home and it’s the reason they’re still hanging in the EuroLeague conversation, tied with Real Madrid and EA7 Milano for the final Play-In spot.

    But there’s a catch: staying perfect at home only gets you so far. If Virtus wants to punch a ticket to the postseason, they’ll need to take some of that magic on the road. The question now isn’t just about defending Bologna, it’s whether they can translate that dominance away from their crowd. Can they steal a few games and make their mark, or will that home-only success leave them stranded outside the playoffs? For a team on the bubble, every road trip is suddenly high-stakes.

     

    This article was written by the European Hoops team: Tiago Cordeiro, João Caeiro and André Lemos. Make sure you give us a follow on Twitter at @EthosEuroleague!

    November 25, 2025, 7:51 am