Injuries and little playing time have colored the performances of the Finns in this season’s Euroleague.
Mikael Jantunen returned to Fenerbahçe’s lineup on Friday. AOP
The flagship of European basketball, the Euroleague, has already reached the halfway point of its regular season.
On Friday, defending champion Fenerbahçe defeated Baskonia in Vitoria 108-93 and strengthened their position in the league’s top six.
The Finnish reinforcement of the Istanbul giant Mikael Jantunen returned to the playing lineup after a long absence.
Suffering from an ankle problem, Jantunen had not appeared in a Fenerbahçe shirt since the end of November.
A graduate of Wartti Basket has been the head coach of Šarūnas Jasikevičius in the opening five nine times, and his average playing time (19:53) before Friday spoke of the confidence of the Lithuanian coach.
On Friday, Jantunen started from the bench, but jumped on the field after just over a minute of the game, when Jasikevičius was disappointed Nicolo Mellin to loose defensive play.
The Finn managed to score four points in just over 13 minutes before having to take an early shower due to a fifth foul in the middle of the fourth set.
Jantunen has scored an average of 5.8 points in the 14 games he has played.
A brick stat
Respectively Miikka Muurinen The Euroleague has undoubtedly been a disappointment. The young Finn has remained a statistic in the crisis club Partizan. He has played solid minutes in just six games and hasn’t appeared on the floor since November 25th.
Miikka Muurinen’s playing time has been very little. AOP
At that time, Partizan suffered a crushing defeat to Panathinaikos, which also got the legendary coach by Željko Obradović to throw the gloves on the counter.
New coat Joan Peñarroya has so far given the youngster playing time only in the Adriatic ABA League.
Muurinen has scored only one point in the Euroleague.
While most of the teams have 19 games behind them, Partizan is second last in the Euroleague. Jumbo club Bayern München can of course overcome it by winning their last game.