By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
After the first two games of the EuroLeague playoffs, things are quite simple. A 2-0 start means that you will be at the final, since no team so far has managed to comeback from being down 0-2.
Still getting a sweep is not as simple as it seems. The EuroLeague playoffs start during the 2004-05 season but in a best-of-three format. During those days, a 2-0 sweep was not unusual with 7 out of 16 qualifications being decided after two games.
Things changed in the 2008-09 season. Under the best-of-five format in a total of 28 series, only five were decided with a sweep until the 2014-15 season. That’s just 18% of the total series with the teams which had the home court advantage getting the perfect score.
Things changed last season with three of the series ending with a sweep as Fenerbahce beat Real Madrid (3-0), Laboral Kutxa prevailed over Panathinaikos (3-0) and CSKA Moscow did the same over Crvena Zvezda (3-0). That means that currently when a team has a 2-0 start then it’s 25% possible to get the win also at Game 3.