Nitro Blue Wings took Sviet 91:65 in the Extraliga on Friday evening, a result that keeps the hosts second in the table while sending the visitors further adrift in sixth. The game opened with the hosts setting a pace that never let up, and by then you could see where this was heading.
And here's the thing — it wasn't just the scoreline that told the story. The hosts were shooting from everywhere: 33 field goals from 62 attempts, with nine of those going beyond the arc. Sviet managed just four from seventeen, and the wind ruined any passing game when you factor in the defensive pressure.
We had called this one at 67 per cent, and so it proved. Not because the hosts were invincible — they'd lost to Szczecin and BKM Lučenec in their last two — but because Sviet found no answer to the tempo set from the opening tip. The hosts picked up two bookings in five minutes of the second quarter and never looked back, though this was basketball, not football.
The numbers behind the win tell you what happened on the floor. Nitro Blue Wings pulled down 42 rebounds to 28, with 33 defensive boards keeping Sviet from easy second chances. They also blocked five shots while Sviet managed two, and the hosts committed only ten turnovers against eight for the visitors — not a lot of difference, but enough to keep momentum.
Sviet's shooting was the problem, plain and simple. Twenty-three field goals from 66 attempts is a percentage that doesn't keep you in games at this level. They got dragged out of position trying to cover the perimeter, and the hosts punished them from the corner when the ball swung through.
This win does not solve everything for the hosts. They still have eleven losses on the board and a trip to face the league leaders coming. But Sviet are staring at the drop now, twenty-one defeats in thirty-six games, and this result just widens the gap between the two halves of the table.
