Crvena zvezda mts take 1:0 lead in the Finals

AdmiralBet ABA League Finals, Round 1, Friday, 27 May 2022:

CRVENA ZVEZDA MTS - Partizan NIS 90:76 (19:23, 23:16, 24:19, 24:18) / * 1:0 in the series

PHOTO GALLERY

POST-GAME COMMENTS

Game recap: In the opening game of the 2021/22 AdmiralBet ABA League Finals, Crvena zvezda mts have prevailed over Partizan NIS at home in their Aleksandar Nikolić Sports Hall in Belgrade. This way, the reigning champions have made the first step towards protecting their title and need two more wins in the series in order to do so. They will now once more face Partizan NIS at home court, on Sunday, while afterwards the series will move in front of the Partizan NIS crowd.

Key moments: After Partizan NIS have dominated the first part of the first half, Crvena zvezda mts bounced back and went up by 3 points by halftime (42:39). However, the true turning point occurred at the start of the second half, when Crvena zvezda mts made an 8:0 run right at the beginning to pull away by a double-digit number of points (50:39) with 2 minutes into the second half. Later in the game Partizan NIS did try their best to fight back and managed to cut the gap to only 6 points in the final quarter, but they never really managed to make it anybody’s game again.

Man of the match: Nikola Ivanović has had a stellar performance, as he led his Crvena zvezda mts to the win over Partizan NIS in Game 1 with 18 points, 5 assists, and a game-high valuation of 18. He is our man of the match!

Can’t trick the stats: It has been the assists/turnovers ratio, that helped Crvena zvezda mts overcome Partizan NIS this time. While Crvena zvezda mts had 24 assists and only 6 turnovers, Partizan NIS had only 8 assists and no less than 15 turnovers. This has had a decisive impact on the outcome of the game in the end.