Apr 06, 2021 by Euroleague.net Print
The 34th and final full round of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season offers six games on Thursday and Friday that will impact which teams fill two open playoff spots and which other one get all-important home-court advantage in the next phase.
Three games in particular influence how the remaining two playoff spots will be filled: Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul vs. Real Madrid and Valencia Basket vs. TD Systems Baskonia Vitoria-Gazteiz on Thursday, tiping off 1 hour and 15 minutes apart, respectively, and Zenit St Petersburg vs. Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv on Friday.
Real (19-14) has the simplest path to the playoffs, with a victory over already-qualified Fenerbahce (20-13) or with a loss by Zenit (18-14).
Apr 06, 2021 by Javier Gancedo, Euroleague.net Print
The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season faces its final round with a lot of questions left to be answered. Mainly, four teams – Real Madrid, Zenit St Petersburg, TD Systems Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, and Valencia Basket – are still fighting for the two playoff spots available. Three other teams, already into the next phase – AX Armani Exchange Milan, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and FC Bayern Munich – still have chances to get the home-court advantage in their series, joining FC Barcelona, CSKA Moscow and Anadolu Efes Istanbul in that privileged situation. Only CSKA and Efes were able to win both games in last week s double round, but maybe the biggest winner was FC Bayern Munich, which qualified to the playoffs for the first time by downing Zalgiris Kaunas on late free throws and a last-second block by Vladimir Lucic.
Apr 05, 2021 by Euroleague.net Print
The incredibly competitive nature of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season is underlined by the fact that several playoff qualification matters still have to be settled as we head into the final round of the regular season. Here is your quick guide to Round 34.
Zenit controlling its destiny
With six of the eight playoffs places already taken, four teams â Real Madrid, Zenit St Petersburg, TD System Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz and Valencia Basket â are competing for the remaining two slots. One of the teams controlling its own destiny is Zenit (18-14), which has two remaining home games against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv (13-19) on Friday and Panathinaikos OPAP Athens (11-20) next Monday. The Russian team knows that if it wins both those games, it will definitely qualify for the playoffs, placed anywhere between sixth and eighth depending on other results.
Apr 03, 2021 by Euroleague.net/graphic by Darius Garuolis Print
Coming off a painful home loss to Olympiacos Piraeus two days earlier, Valencia Basket needed to win on ALBA Berlin s court on Friday to assure that its chances to qualify for the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs would remain alive. As such, it was a do-or-die game for Valencia against another already-eliminated opponent playing without pressure because it had nothing to lose.
That disparity in expectations likely made a difference early in Friday s game. ALBA doubled Valencia at the end of the first quarter, 26-13, as the visibly tight visitors made just 4 of 14 field goal tries and turned the ball over 6 times. A four-point play by Marcus Eriksson early in the second quarter made it worse for Valencia, raising ALBA s advantage to 35-17 and triggering alarms on the visiting team.
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