EuroLeague Round 8 came to an end on Friday night, with five teams forcing a tie for second place in the standings.
Real Madrid, Olympiacos, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, FC Barcelona and ASVEL Villeurbanne are all tied for second, with a 6-2 record.
The “Whites” needed an 0-8 run in crunch time in order to escape from Audi Dome with a big victory over Bayern Munich (76-80). The visitors improved to 6-2, whereas the Bavarians saw their three-game winning streak come to an end and dropped to 3-5.
In Piraeus, Olympiacos relied on its defense and dominated Monaco (86-65) to remain unbeaten at home (6-0). The “Reds” trailed by 12 in the first half (17-29), but outscored their opponents 69-36 the rest of the way to cruise to the victory.
Olympiacos improved to 6-2, whereas Monaco dropped to 4-4 on the table.
Maccabi Tel-Aviv extended its winning streak in the EuroLeague to five games, thanks to its 69-87 road victory over Baskonia.
The Israelis used a 2-13 run in the fourth quarter to take a double-digit lead and seal the deal. Maccabi is now at 6-2, whereas the Basques have lost three straight and have a 3-5 record.
Zenit Saint Petersburg was unstoppable at Sinan Erdem Dome and crushed the defending EuroLeague champions Anadolu Efes (79-90).
A couple of big runs (2-13 and 0-12 in the second and third quarter, respectively) were enough for the Russians to lead by 26 (40-66) and never look back.
Zenit came close to the top (5-3), whereas Efes has now lost six of its first eight games (2-6).
At Zalgirio Arena, Zalgiris Kaunas missed another chance to claim its first win this season. Instead, ALBA Berlin rallied past the Lithuanians (71-79) and handed them their eight straight defeat.
The Germans took control from the opening quarter and never looked back. Zalgiris attempted to turn things around, but came up short and now is at 0-8. On the contrary, ALBA has a 3-5 record.
