Buducnost Voli basketball players made only two mistakes this season in the AdmiralBet ABA League.
More precisely, one of those two defeats in the regional competition can be said to be a real blip - in the ninth round when the debutant Spartak was happy in "Morača" - while the lost match in the derby with Crvena Zvezda, as painful as it was (probably undeserved ) something that represents reality considering that it is a Euroleague and one of the favorites for the title on the Adriatic.
Now, in the 12th round, the team from Podgorica is without a doubt the most difficult possible mission because they are visiting Partizan, the leader of the ABA league and a team that is currently playing exactly the way Željko Obradović wants.
The "Black and Whites" are 11-0 in the regional elite, and in the Euroleague they have five wins in a row, so it is clear that this is not the best moment for Andrej Žakelj's team to go to the Belgrade Arena.
In the capital of Serbia, Buducnost often knew how to surpass its own capabilities, to play a top game, although in duels with Partizan, the side has been waiting for victory for more than four years - since October 10, 2020 and the first part of the season marked by the coronavirus pandemic.
It was played without the presence of spectators, and then in the "Ranko Žeravica" hall in New Belgrade, the Montenegrin champion celebrated 101:99 with a three-pointer by Danilo Nikolić, who scored in the last second of overtime...
The roles are certainly different now, Partizan has stabilized and is already in the Euroleague for the third season, and after 12 rounds in the ABA league, they have two more wins than Podgorica, who have the same score as Crvena zvezda (9-2). In addition, Partizan enters Sunday's derby (20 p.m.) after seven victories in a row at home against the team from Podgorica.
And most of them ended with a convincing result. Thus, in November 2021, in the first season after Obradović's return to the former European champion's bench, it was 75:66, and then 82:66 and 101:77 in the first and third games of the semi-finals of the playoffs. A season later, in December 2022, Budućnost in Belgrade was practically at minus 30 (106:77), while in the regular part of the previous season the result was 96:83...
Much more excitement was seen in the semi-finals of the playoffs, where Partizan had the home field advantage.
In the first meeting in Belgrade, the "Blues" lost 78:67, at home they triumphed 74:73 in an uncertain clash, and the "Black and Whites" won their match - 100:86.
It was a game with many controversial refereeing decisions, mostly they went to the detriment of Budućnost, which in the first half of the third quarter, when the home team was getting ahead of its rivals, was left without the suspended Jogi Ferrell.
All of that is in the near or distant past, the first match between each other this season is on the line and another very difficult task for Žakelj's team, who are visiting Belgrade after a difficult trip to the Canary Islands, where they played against Gran Canaria in the Eurocup on Wednesday (they lost 82: 71).
Bonus video:
