By Lefteris Moutis / moutis@eurohoops.net
Three of the four pairs in the playoffs started with two wins by the teams that have the home advantage. What does this mean as to how the Euroleague playoffs will progress?
Fenerbahce is 2-0 ahead of Maccabi, CSKA ahead of Panathinaikos and Real Madrid ahead of Anadolu Efes. After six years of conducting the playoffs with the current system – which is to determine the qualification in three wins with the 2-2-1 system – from a total of 24 series, 12 of those have started with a 2-0 score.
From those 12 teams then, only 4 managed to sweep up the series and qualifying in 3-0, another 5 lost the third game but advanced to the Final Four in 3-1. Finally, 3 teams lost 2 games in a row but eventually qualified in 3-2 thanks to a win in the fifth game.
The conclusion that arises then is that every team that started the series with 2-0, advanced to the Final Four! Also, all these years only Olympiacos in 2013 managed to win the Euroleague when starting the series with 2-0 wins…
All the series that started with 2-0
| Season | Game | Final score |
| 2008-09 | Olympiacos-Real | 3-1 |
| 2008-09 | CSKA-Partizan | 3-0 |
| 2009-10 | Olympiacos-Prokom | 3-1 |
| 2009-10 | CSKA-Tau Ceramica | 3-1 |
| 2011-12 | Barcelona-Unics | 3-0 |
| 2011-12 | CSKA-Bilbao | 3-1 |
| 2012-13 | Real-Maccabi T.A. | 3-0 |
| 2012-13 | Cska-Caja Laboral | 3-1 |
| 2012-13 | Olympiacos–Efes | 3-2 |
| 2013-14 | Barcelona-Galatasaray | 3-0 |
| 2013-14 | Real M.-Olympiacos | 3-2 |
| 2014-14 | CSKA-Panathinaikos | 3-2 |