Can anyone stay perfect?

A mark of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague’s fierce competitiveness is that only four teams are heading into this week’s fixtures with unblemished 2-0 records, with the other 12 teams all losing at least one of their first two games. One of the perfect starts will definitely be broken on Tuesday night in Round 3, when early pace setters Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv and Olympiacos Piraeus go head to head in Israel, where only the winner will escape unscathed with a 3-0 record. Currently top of the standings on points difference is Real Madrid, which will seek to stay perfect this week against AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan and Zalgiris Kaunas but will have to do so without the services of big men Ognjen Kuzmic and Anthony Randolph, who were both injured in Round 2’s victory over CSKA Moscow. The only other team heading into the week unbeaten is Khimki Moscow Region, which also has the challenge of facing Olympiacos in Round 4, after first hosting Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade on Tuesday night.

Quartet gunning for first wins

Similarly, only four teams remain winless after the opening two rounds, with Milan, Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz, Anadolu Efes Istanbul and Brose Bamberg desperate to breaks their ducks in this season’s first double round week. At least one of those four teams are guaranteed a victory by the end of the week, because Friday night will see Bamberg welcome Baskonia. By then, Baskonia will hope to have already got off the mark with a Round 3 all-Spanish meeting with Valencia which will be notable for the ‘homecoming’ of Valencia forward Fernando San Emeterio, who spent seven seasons with Baskonia between 2008 and 2015, making 143 EuroLeague appearances. Milan will feel a win is around the corner after coming close in its opening two games, leading on the road against CSKA Moscow until a late rally and then taking reigning champions Fenerbahce Dogus Istanbul to overtime in Round 2. The Italian team’s brutally tough early schedule continues with Tuesday’s trip to Madrid, meaning its first three games will all have been against qualifiers for last season’s Final Four, followed by a home meeting with FC Barcelona Lassa on Thursday.

Panathinaikos ready to welcome Obradovic

Any meeting between Zeljko Obradovic and Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens is always bound to be an emotionally charged affair following the coach’s glorious 13-year spell with the Greek giant, which yielded five EuroLeague titles. And this week’s Round Four encounter in Athens has particular resonance for being the first rematch between Panathinaikos and Obradovic’s Fenerbahce Dogus Istanbul since last season’s dramatic playoff series, when Panathinaikos’s title dreams were shattered by their former coach as his team produced a mightily impressive series sweep to march into the Final Four. Fenerbahce were magnificent in that series, winning by 13 and 5 points in Athens, and then by 18 points in Istanbul, to become the first team in the nine-year history of the best-of-five playoffs format to sweep a series it entered without enjoying the benefit of home-court advantage. So there will certainly be a sense of unfinished business for Panathinaikos on Friday night, and the game has plenty of significance for both teams as they attempt to continue their ascent towards the top of the standings following opening round losses.

Can CSKA’s new backcourt trio start firing?

Obradovic won’t be the only familiar face awaiting Panathinaikos this week, with the Serbian coach’s long-term former assistant in Athens, Dimitris Itoudis, ready to take his CSKA Moscow team into Round 3’s meeting with his old club in the Russian capital. Wednesday’s meeting with Panathinaikos gives Itoudis and CSKA a chance to get quickly back on track following the disappointment of last week’s 82-69 loss at Real Madrid, which was notable for CSKA being held to just five assists – the second-lowest total in the club’s EuroLeague history. It’s only natural that CSKA’s new-look offense will take some time to gel, with long-serving backcourt leaders Aaron Jackson and Milos Teodosic being replaced by summer arrivals Leo Westermann and Sergio Rodriguez. Nando De Colo is still there, of course, but the kind of collective chemistry which allowed CSKA to surpass 25 team assists last season does not come overnight. There’s no better place for CSKA’s new backcourt trio to develop their mutual understanding than the heat of the action against a major continental force like Panathinaikos, and the extent to which Xavi Pascual’s defense can subdue Itoudis’s offense will undoubtedly be one of the big talking points from this week’s games.

Spanish duo ready for EuroCup Final rematch

The last game of the week will also be one of the most intensely competed, with Valencia Basket hosting Unicaja Malaga for a rematch of last season’s EuroCup Final. That best of three series was taken by Unicaja in a nailbiting affair which went down to the final quarter of the final game, when Unicaja overcame a 13-point deficit thanks to a remarkable 0-18 run over the course of seven and a half minutes. Valencia were eventually restricted to just 4 points in the fourth quarter as visiting Unicaja triumphed 58-63 to take both the title and an automatic berth in this season’s EuroLeague, leaving Valencia players and fans devastated by the thought they had missed out on a place in the continent’s top competition. However, Valencia subsequently showed incredible resolve to salvage their season and earn EuroLeague qualification through a different route: winning the Spanish title for the very first time in the club’s history. So now last season’s EuroCup finalists are back in action again, this time going head to head in EuroLeague for the very first time, and you can be sure one thing will be in the minds of Valencia’s fans and players: revenge.