The history of the playoffs!

By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net

The field for the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Playoffs is complete, which makes it a perfect time for Eurohoops.net to rank the most successful teams in this phase of the competition.

Qualification for the Final Four through the playoffs was established in the 2004-05 season and, ever since, European fans have enjoyed in these games some of the most thrilling moments in the Euroleague.

Which teams have been present in the playoffs most often, which ones have qualified the most times, which ones did so by taking advantage of a home-court advantage and which ones have made the most upsets?

Eurohoops ranked the teams based on their presence in the playoffs and set as a second criterion the qualifications for the Final Four. In the following pages you can see the eleven teams that had at least three playoff appearances.

Ten teams have taken part at least once in the playoffs (Scavolini Pesaro, Benetton Treviso, Dynamo Moscow, Unicaja Malaga, Prokom, Valencia Basket, Bilbao, UNICS Kazan, Galatasaray Istanbul, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan) but only one of them, Unicaja, qualified for the Final Four (in Athens in 2007 with a 2-1 series win over FC Barcelona Lassa).

This year’s field features two newcomers, Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade and Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar, while six other teams below are back in the playoffs. Their results below list their success to date as they begin trying to grab for glory again in a few days!

Partizan Belgrade

Playoff appearances: 3

Final Four qualifications: 1

Series record with home-court advantage: 0/0

Series record without home-court advantage: 1/3

Partizan has taken part in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Playoffs three times. All of those were without a home-court advantage and they succeeded only once. The Serbian team qualified in the 2009-10 season for the Final Four in Paris with a 3-1 series victory over Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv. In the previous seasons, they were knocked out by Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz and CSKA Moscow.

Anadolu Efes Istanbul

Playoff appearances: 4

Final Four qualifications: 0

Series record with home-court advantage: 0/0

Series record without home-court advantage: 0/4

Efes has qualified in four seasons for the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Playoffs, but they haven’t managed to qualify for the Final Four. In each one of those four occasions, the Turkish team would had to have won on the road in order to advance, since they didn’t have the home-court advantage. They got close in 2004-05 against Panathinaikos Athens (2-1) and in 2012-13 against Olympiacos Piraeus (3-2), but succumbed in the last game.

Fenerbahce Istanbul

Playoff appearances: 4

Final Four qualifications: 1

Series record with home-court advantage: 1/1

Series record without home-court advantage: 0/2

The results to date of Fenerbahce, which has now qualified for its fourth playoffs, show why home-court advantage is so important. In their three appearances in the playoffs so far, they qualified in the Final Four last year with a 3-0 sweep when they had home-court advantage and were knocked out (2-0 by CSKA Moscow and Siena) when they didn’t.

Montepaschi Siena

Playoff appearances: 4

Final Four qualifications: 2

Series record with home-court advantage: 1/2

Series record without home-court advantage: 1/2

One of the traditional forces in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague in previous years was Siena. The Italian team took part in the playoffs four times and qualified on two of those occasions. They qualified in 2007-08 with home-court advantage over Fenerbahce Istanbul (2-0) and without it in 2010-11 over Olympiacos Piraeus (1-3), while they were knocked out in 2008-09 by Panathinaikos Athens and 2011-12 by Olympiacos.

Real Madrid

Playoff appearances: 7

Final Four qualifications: 4

Series record with home-court advantage: 4/4

Series record without home-court advantage: 0/2

Madrid have now qualified for the playoff phase in seven of the last eight seasons. To date, they have a perfect qualification record (4/4) when they have the home-court advantage: CSKA Moscow is the only team with a better track record at home. Before their four consecutive qualifications with a home-court advantage, the Madrileños were knocked out two times (between 2009 and 2010) without having home-court advantage, by Olympiacos Piraeus and FC Barcelona Lassa.

Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz

Playoff appearances: 9

Final Four qualifications: 4

Series record with home-court advantage: 2/3

Series record without home-court advantage: 2/5

In the 12 seasons that the playoffs have existed, Laboral has been absent just three times. Until this season, the team has a 50% success rate in the playoffs, with four qualifications in eight appearances in the playoffs. Laboral got the ticket to the Final Four in their first four participations in the playoffs and were knocked out in the next four. On the first two occasions, in 2005 and 2006, Laboral reached the Final Four without home-court advantage, and the next two times they advanced with it.

Panathinaikos Athens

Playoff appearances: 10

Final Four qualifications: 4

Series record with home-court advantage: 4/5

Series record without home-court advantage: 1/4

Panathinaikos now has 10 qualifications to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Playoffs. The Greens missed out on the playoff in just two seasons, which coincidentally happened in 2008 and 2010, right in the middle of their last three titles, in 2007, 2009 and 2011. From the playoffs, they have advanced to five Final Fours. Their last title, in 2011, was won without home-court advantage after defeating the defending champion that season, FC Barcelona Lassa.