Dubai have won four of their last five and are winning by 8 points a game. They are also conceding more than they did when they were losing.
Through four games they were 2-2, scoring 74 and giving up 79. In the five since: 98.2 scored, 89.8 allowed. The defence got worse. The offence went somewhere else entirely.
Two men explain the hot part
Elie Okobo made 4 of 15 from three in the first four games. In the last five he has made 10 of 14.
Dwayne Bacon went from 3 of 14 to 9 of 19. Mfiondu Kabengele's scoring went from 10.8 a game to 17.4, and Filip Petrusev, who was barely playing, has gone from 3.3 points to 12.0.
That is a team shooting 61.5% effective, which would be the best mark in the EuroLeague by a distance over a season. Nobody shoots like that for a season. When it stops, a defence giving up 90 a night is the problem that remains.
One man explains the part that lasts
McKinley Wright IV is giving the ball away 0.6 times a game. In the first four it was 1.8, and he is playing three minutes more now than he was then.
His assists in the same stretch went from 2.2 to 4.6. The team's followed him: 13.5 turnovers a game down to 9.6, assists 14.8 up to 19.8.
That is not a hot hand. That is a point guard who has worked out where everybody likes the ball, which is the hardest thing for a rebuilt roster to find and the only part of this run that does not depend on shots falling.
How real is it?
Part of it is the schedule. The two early defeats were to Fenerbahce and Crvena Zvezda. Three of the four wins came against Baskonia, Milan and Bayern, who sit 20th, 19th and 18th.
The exception is the one that counts: 97-83 at home against Hapoel, who were 6-2 and sixth.
Dubai are 6-3, eighth, one win off second in a table where eight clubs are separated by a single win. Four and five games is a small sample, and the shooting will cool. The passing should not.
