«Нимбурк» Нимбурк, Чехия vs. «Калев» Таллин, Эстония

Czech Nymburk handled Estonian Kalev a 79:65 loss on their home floor to start the 2015 season. The home team got out to a double digit lead in the first quarter and never looked back.

The Plot
Both teams are looking for their first ever VTB League Play-off appearance, yet took very different approaches to building their rosters in the offseason. Nymbruk signed mostly young, hungry and unproven players, while their counterparts decided to rely on veterans. Both clubs approached the game without injuries and didn’t waste any time, springing into action right from the opening tip.

The teams were even in the 1st until Kalev let in two three pointers in a row, started making unforced errors and let Nymbruk break the game open — 26:13

Point guard Stan Stokk was active in the second period and presented some challenges for the defense of Nymbruk, but his effort wasn’t matched by his teammates and so the teams left for the break with the score — 44:34

The visitors got out to a fast start in the 3rd quarter and for a while it looked like they might be back in the ballgame, until the Czech team went on the run of their own, with Michael Dickson hitting a couple of unbelievable threes, they looked comfortable going into the 4th up by twelve — 65:53. The team from Estonia remained behind until the end and never got closer than within ten points.

The Hero
Michael Dickson. Great League debut for an American. Dickson hit a couple of wild threes, pushed his team up court and finished with 19 points and six helpers.

The Number
19 – Turnovers committed by Kalev.

Comments
Ronen Ginsburg. Nymbruk’s head coach
It’s nice to start out with a win. This isn’t the same Nymbruk team people had gotten used to over the past seven years, it’s a very young team right now. We were missing a pair of players but we managed to play a good game, I would like to point out Jiri Welsh and Martin Peterka who gave us spark off the bench. No reason to celebrate yet though, there’s a full season ahead of us, this Wednesday we will face Lokomotiv.

Alar Vakkar. Kalev’s head coach
The game was won and lost in the 1st quarter, when we committed six turnovers and they shot the ball 20 times in 10 minutes, while we had 14 attempts. We got the game to within our striking distance, but came up short.