Dijon's chemistry set and a few more things you didn't see on TV in Dijon vs. Turk Telekom

ATHENS (Greece) - The second Quarter-Final at the Final 8, between Dijon and Turk Telekom, kept fans glued to their TV sets until the final second, when the French team finally prevailed 83-82, but there was so much more to this game than meets the eye.

 

The chemistry behind the Dijon sauce

"It's crazy, this is the start of my first year with these guys but it feels like I have been playing with them for a year and a half, or two years even," Jaron Johnson said after the game.

"We have great chemistry on and off the court, I am surrounded by a great group of guys which are easy to be around, easy to play basketball with."

It turns out that getting along so well can help a group of guys work their way back from an early 12-point deficit, like Dijon did after trailing Turk Telekom 17-5 midway through the opening quarter, even though the team's leading scorer is having an off day - David Holston shot only 1 of 9 from the floor and had an efficiency rating of 7.

"Dave, like every player, can have a bad game so we have to fill in for him and I did that in the first half, we know he is going to contribute in other ways," said Axel Julien, who led the way for Dijon with 19 points, including a BCL career-high 5 triples, and 5 assists.

"This is the way this team plays, if one or two players has a bad day someone else steps up and everybody contributes on defense."

 
Downtown traffic

When the two teams that lead the league in three-point field goal percentage cross paths, an unusually high amount of shots from behind the arc is to be expected, but Dijon went above and beyond on Wednesday night in OAKA.

The French side's 38 three-point shots are a new BCL record in a postseason game. Their 13 made triples meanwhile tied the record for most made threes in a game from the Quarter-Finals onwards, previously held only by Nizhny Novgorod.

By contrast, Turk Telekom shot only 27 percent from beyond the arc, which is not only way below their 40 percent average coming into the game but also their lowest three-point field goal percentage in a BCL game.

TT silver lining

The sense of heartbreaking disappointment was evident on the faces of every Turk Telekom player and coaching staff member, but Kyle Wiltjer insisted afterwards that they will keep their heads high and work to make it to the 2020-21 season Final 4, in May.

The most obvious silver lining for the Turkish team was the performance of newly-arrived Tyler Ennis who had 14 points and 11 assists and became only the third player to register a double-double in points and assists from the Quarter-Finals onwards.