By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
The 2018-19 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion will be decided today (19/5) between CSKA Moscow and Anadolu Efes Istanbul after their clash at 20:30 CET.
Efes has had one of, if not the best season in the club’s history. They transformed from a last-place team last season to the championship contenders this year. This was their first Final Four after 18 years and they made it to the Final for the first time ever. Standing in their way, however, is the Russian powerhouse in CSKA which rarely misses the Final Four (leads all-time list, 18 appearances) and are aiming at their 8th EuroLeague trophy in the 14th Final appearance.
Clash of the opposites
This will also be the first EuroLeague Final for Efes coach Ergin Ataman who lost semifinals in 2000 (Efes) and 2003 (Siena). That said, the 53-year-old coach is far from inexperienced and is among a small group of coaches who’ve won three different European competitions (Saporta Cup, FIBA EuroChallenge, EuroCup). On the other side awaits Dimitris Itoudis who took over CSKA in 2014 and led them to five straight Final Four appearances including a title in 2016.
Six CSKA players – Nando De Colo, Nikita Kurbanov, Kyle Hines, Andrey Vorontsevich, Cory Higgins and Mikhail Kulagin – were part of the 2016 championship squad. Hines is aiming for his 4th EuroLeague title while Vorontsevich and Kurbanov have two each under their belt. De Colo and Sergio Rodriguez have both been EuroLeague MVPs in the past.
That roster with an impressive resume will go against Efes which has only one player to have experienced a EuroLeague Final in Bryant Dunston and one with a Final Four appearance in Vasilije Micic. It would normally spell trouble for the Turks but they’ve proved more than capable to step up on this final stage after a convincing statement win over Fenerbahce in the semifinal.
The backcourt battle
Both squads have put on a highly effective basketball throughout the season with a lot of transition and pick and roll play, and it doesn’t come as a surprise that they heavily rely on their backcourts.
Shane Larkin has been phenomenal in the finish of the season and put on a historic performance in the semifinal. Vasilije Micic has followed him every step of the way but aside from those two, Rodrigue Beaubois and Krunoslav Simon will have to step up as they did multiple times throughout the year. The high tempo of the game might not leave much space for the bigs but Efes’ Adrien Moerman and Tibor Pleiss showed they can contribute from deep as well as in the paint which could be decisive in this game.
CSKA will answer with De Colo, Rodriguez and Cory Higgins but Daniel Hackett as well. The Russians might be a bit undersized down low with Othello Hunter and Hines but that can also prove to be an advantage as especially the latter can react better on high pick and rolls and try to slow down Efes’ main weapon.
Head-to-head
CSKA has an 18-9 record over Efes since 1992 and Itoudis has an 8-3 record against Ataman. They’ve clashed three times since the latter took over Efes in 2017 and CSKA won all of them, including the two games this season.
The Army Men have shown constant play throughout all forty minutes during the season but have also shown the ability to bounce back from tough spots as they did against Real Madrid in the semifinal. That will be very important if Efes manages to put on a furious third quarter in which they broke most of their opponents this season. Those were also the crucial ten minutes against Fenerbahce in the semifinal.