By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
his week’s panel includes Ermal Kuqo, long-time EuroLeague player and 2017 Final Four Ambassador; Gokhan German, basketball writer and columnist for Fanatik sports newspaper in Turkey; Luca Chiabotti, the former basketball expert-in-residence at La Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy; Our own Aris Barkas, Chief Editor at Eurohoops; and Andy West, EuroLeague.net contributor and EuroLeague.TV commentator. Check out their opinions on three key questions going into Round 24 of the regular season.
1. Which team, in your opinion, has had the most impressive single victory of the season?
Ermal Kuqo
There have been a lot of good games, and surprising wins this season, like Red Star beating Real in Madrid, or Efes in Tel Aviv against Maccabi behind an impressive performance by Errick McCollum early in the season. But for me, the one that stands out would have to be Zalgiris beating Fenerbahce in Istanbul. It was a greatly-executed game by both teams, but Zalgiris was really impressive. Saras had really come to Istanbul well prepared and managed to get a win against his former coach and mentor, Zeljko Obradovic. It was a great game to watch live for a basketball junkie like myself.
Luca Chiabotti
With a lot of great games played this season, I offer my top six games, all victories on the road: Khimki at Madrid in Round 5; Fenerbahce at CSKA with Melli’s buzzer-beater in Round 8; Crvena Zvezda at Madrid in Round 10; Zalgiris at Fenerbahce in Round 12; Madrid at Fenerbahce in Round 15; and Olympiacos at Madrid in Round 21. And the winner is…. Zalgiris’s victory on the court of the champions, the first strong signal that Sarunas Jasikevicius’s team can compete at the highest level and not only on its home court. Zalgiris, unexpectedly a playoff team already, went from up by 5 points to down by 5 with 2:38 to play and came back to win the most impressive game of this season.
Gokhan German
When you look at the statistics, CSKA Moscow never loses home games except against Fenerbahce. In the last three years, they won all their games in the Russian capital when the opponent was not Fenerbahce. CSKA is already the first team to have qualified for the playoffs, and is the first favorite to win the title. This year they have won 10 of 11 games on their own court. As last year, Fenerbahce is again the only team to break CSKA’s home dominance. There have been a lot of surprises and fascinating victories, but I think that Fenerbahce did a special thing again by beating CSKA in Moscow.
Aris Barkas
That’s a very difficult question because there have been many big games so far this season. My pick is Fenerbahce’s win over CSKA in Moscow. The defending champs escaped with a 95-93 win after an amazing spectacle that included overtime. Jan Vesely scored 31 points and stole the show among many amazing individual performances. It was an instant classic and maybe an omen for things to come. That’s the only home defeat for CSKA Moscow so far this season.
Andy West
This might be a case of recency bias, but the game I commentated on for Euroleague TV last week saw Real Madrid give an extremely impressive performance to tear apart Barcelona. On the road against an archrival, just a few days after being beaten in the Spanish Cup by Barca, and having lost at home to Olympiacos in its last EuroLeague game, I thought it was a major statement from Madrid. Gustavo Ayon and Anthony Randolph both coming back to fitness is huge, and Facundo Campazzo ran the backcourt to the extent that a rare poor game from Luka Doncic didn’t even matter. Los Blancos were outstanding on both offense and defense and I can’t recall a better team performance.
2. Which player, in your opinion, has had the most impressive single-game performance this season?
Ermal Kuqo
There have been many great individual performances this year, which also makes the EuroLeague a must-watch basketball event every single game, but I am a huge Vassilis Spanoulis fan and will be biased with this question. I’ll go with Kill Bill and his 25-point performance against Valencia, my former team, by the way, and say to everyone that you should never underestimate the Olympiacos captain. As long as he can put his shoes on and step on the basketball court, my money will always be on Spanoulis, especially if he’s playing toward the end of the season when the ball gets heavier and heavier.
Luca Chiabotti
It is hard to choose from among a lot of great games from the magic trio Doncic, Shved and De Colo… I vote Luka Doncic game in Real Madrid’s win at Fenerbahce, when he came within 2 rebounds of a triple double: 20 points, 8 rebounds, 10 assist in 30 minutes played on the court of the champions for an performance index rating of 37. He shot bad on three-pointers, 1 for 7, but was near perfect at free throws, 11 for 12. It should not be forgotten that Doncic is just 19 years old (happy birthday!) and what he did was one of the best performances in Euroleague history for a young player.
Gokhan German
There have been a lot of impressive performances, but I think that Nick Calathes did a great job in Istanbul against Anadolu Efes and won that game alone. In addition to scoring 29 points, grabbing 9 rebounds and making 10 assists, he scored 11 of his team’s last 13 points at the game’s final 5 minute. He did everything all game long, and in the crucial moments, too.
Aris Barkas
Nick Calathes’s almost triple-double against Anadolu Efes Istanbul can’t be compared with anything else. He had 29 points, 10 assists, 9 rebounds and even made 3 of 4 threes, a part of his game which haunted him for many years. Panathinaikos got the close 82-81 win and this performance remains one of the better arguments for Calathes in his MVP candidacy.
Andy West
I’d like to give an honorable mention to another game I commentated on: Toney Douglas for Efes against Fenerbahce. Even though his team lost, Douglas was amazing – he scored 29 points and didn’t miss a single shot until the last minute of the game! But for the very best individual performance, I think we have to go right back to the opening week and Pierre Jackson for Maccabi against Brose. On his team debut in the first game of the season, he had 27 points including 5-of-5 three-point shooting, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, just 1 turnover and a couple of steals, for a PIR of 41. Wow!
3. Which team will finish eighth and take the last playoffs spot?
Ermal Kuqo
This will be very interesting actually. Although Maccabi has a two-win advantage over Baskonia and Unicaja, I feel like Baskonia’s schedule is slightly more to their advantage compared to the other two teams fighting for the eighth spot. And in the case of a potential tie, Maccabi goes to Vitoria, where very few brave souls have managed to snatch a win in such crucial times. I don’t want to write off Unicaja’s chances either, but their schedule has them visiting CSKA and Fenerbahce, which will make it very difficult for them to qualify. But the EuroLeague has become such an unpredictable league with many teams playing such high-quality basketball that I am inclined to not be very sure with my predictions. One thing I am sure of is that we will be watching some great quality basketball in the weeks to come.
Luca Chiabotti
I think that it’s a 50-50 situation between Maccabi and Baskonia, whose schedule will be much easier than those of Maccabi and Unicaja. Baskonia and Unicaja have two wins less than Maccabi. Baskonia lost by 6 in Tel Aviv but will play five of the last seven games at home, instead of three out of seven like Maccabi. At the moment, the situation is as if the two teams were even in the rankings, and it’s likely that the playoffs spot will be decided by their Round 29 showdown in Vitoria. But I think that at the end of the day Maccabi will save its playoffs spot.
Gokhan German
My answer is Baskonia. They have the same victories as Unicaja, but Unicaja’s schedule is very, very hard, while Baskonia will play seven games in Spain, five of them at home against not very strong teams. Baskonia is two wins behind Maccabi, but if they get within one and then win the Round 29 battle between them by 7 points, they will get the advantage. Maccabi’s games are a little bit harder than Baskonia’s. Maccabi will face CSKA, Fenerbahce, Panathinaikos, Baskonia and Khimki. I think that Baskonia will take the last spot.
Aris Barkas
While both Baskonia and Unicaja are worthy rivals, I wouldn’t bet against Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv. They have the tradition, the fans and the home court to intimidate anyone. Plus they play an exciting brand of basketball and I think that the time has come for their playoff return. The fact that they also have a two-win advantage in the race at this point, doesn’t hurt this prediction.
Andy West
I’ve been backing Baskonia to climb up into the playoffs for months and I still think they’ll do it, mainly because five of Baskonia’s last seven games are at home, whereas Maccabi only has three more in Tel Aviv. This week will be very important: if Baskonia wins at home against Khimki – by no means a given – and Maccabi loses against CSKA, there will be just a one-game gap. Then it could all come down to Round 29, with Baskonia hosting Maccabi and needing to win by at least 7 points to claim the head-to-head advantage. What a game that could be!