Euroleague Tips with Previews

• Mike James (Monaco, ex Panathinaikos) has scored in double figures in 21 of his last 22 games.

AS Monaco makes its EuroLeague debut against one of the powerhouses in the competition, six-time champion Panathinaikos OPAP Athens. Monaco won the 7DAYS EuroCup title last season and improved its roster with experienced players such as Will Thomas, Danilo Andjusic, Donatas Motiejunas and Mike James, who plays against his former team. Only two players – Rudy Demahis and Rob Gray – and head coach Zvezdan Mitrovic remain from last season’s EuroCup-winning team. Panathinaikos kept a core of stars led by Ioannis Papapetrou, Nemanja Nedovic, Georgios Papagiannis and Howard Sant-Roos. It added a new coach, Dimitris Priftis, and athletic players such as Kendrick Perry, Jeremy Evans and Okaro White. These teams face each other for the first time, which adds even more anticipation to the first game of the 2021-22 EuroLeague season!

Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv and FC Bayern Munich face each other in front of a sold-out full capacity crowd at Menora Mivtachim Arena. Maccabi has a 5-3 record against Bayern and is 3-1 at home. Bayern’s only win in Tel Aviv came last season, 82-85, behind 26 points from All-EuroLeague forward Vladimir Lucic. Maccabi made a lot of roster changes to try to be even more competitive. Two of its major frontcourt signings, Derrick Williams and Jalen Reynolds, played for Bayern in the past. Keenan Evans, Kameron Taylor, Roman Sorkin, Yiftach Ziv, James Nunnally and Jake Cohen have also joined the Israeli champion. Bayern starts the 2021-22 EuroLeague season with a lot of new faces, too, such as Darrun Hilliard, Augustine Rubit and a couple of former Maccabi players, Othello Hunter and DeShaun Thomas. As always, it should be an intense showdown in Tel Aviv.

• Every CSKA player has previous experience in the competition and at least four EuroLeague appearances.

This is a showdown between two of the teams that made it to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four last season. AX Armani Exchange Milan signed Dinos Mitoglou, Nicolo Melli, Devon Hall and Giampaolo Ricci, among others, to improve a roster that already included two former CSKA Moscow superstars, Kyle Hines and Sergio Rodriguez, as well as Ettore Messina, who won two of his four EuroLeague titles with the Russian powerhouse. CSKA’s marquee additions are two-time EuroLeague top scorer Alexey Shved and sharpshooter Marius Grigonis. CSKA center Nikola Milutinov set a EuroLeague record with 16 offensive rebounds in Milan last season and is healthy again. That night, CSKA also set a team record for most offensive boards in EuroLeague history with 30. These teams faced each other for the first time in the 1966 EuroLeague semifinals and most recently in the 2021 Third Place Game. CSKA has a 14-7 record against the Italian powerhouse in those 55 years of a sporting rivalry.

• Chris Singleton has never sat out of a EuroLeague game and his next appearance will be 203rd in five seasons in the competition, the longest active streak and the second-longest in the EuroLeague all-time. Only Nikos Zisis played in more consecutive games in EuroLeague history, 209.

This opening-night game is a rematch of an outstanding playoff series from last season that went down to the wire; Real Madrid rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie the series and a three-pointer by Krunoslav Simon sealed the outcome late in Game 5. It will be Anadolu Efes Istanbul’s first-ever EuroLeague game as reigning champion. It managed to keep its main players – Vasilije Micic, Shane Larkin, Rodrigue Beaubois, Simon, Chris Singleton, Bryant Dunston, Adrien Moerman – and only added one player: center Filip Petrusev. Real Madrid is back with new faces such as Thomas Heurtel, Adam Hanga, Nigel Williams-Goss and Guerschon Yabusele. Sergio Llull, Rudy Fernandez, Edy Tavares, Fabien Causeur and Jeffery Taylor have been with Real long-term. Trey Thompkins and Anthony Randolph are out with injuries. High intensity and outstanding basketball is guaranteed when Real and Efes meet on a basketball court so sit back, relax and enjoy all the good things that a great EuroLeague game can offer.