By John Rammas/ irammas@eurohoops.net
The EuroLeague format has taken several directions since 2000, but now it seems to have reached its destination. Starting with the 2016-17 season, the competition has the 16 best teams battling it out in a regular season that lasts 30 rounds – sometimes more often than once a week – and this latest change has made it more exciting than ever before. The number of games with such small margins of victory is proof of this.
The season of the change
The 2015-16 season was the last one that included more than one phase – the regular season and the Top 16 – preceding the playoffs and there was a varying degree of suspense in the games. Only 13% of games came down to a single possession (1-3 points), though the championship game in Berlin (Fenerbahce Dogus Istanbul 96-101 CSKA Moscow in overtime) was more than enough to make up for that low figure.
Every year it gets better: Vol. 1
Changing the format last season didn’t just increase the number of games, it also increased the level of interest. The 240 games played with all the teams hosting and being hosted by all the others would work fine on their own, however this change added something extra. The percentage of games that were decided by a single possession increased to 18%, while 34.6% of games had a margin of victory of up to 5 points and 62.9% of games had a single-digit margin.
Every year it gets better: Vol. 2
With more than two-thirds of the regular season already behind us, 34 of these 176 games this season have been decided by a difference of up to 3 points. This means a new increase of this figure, which is now 19.3%. The same goes for the games that were decided by a margin of up to 5 points, where the percentage has gone up to 36.6% (64 of 176). On the other hand, the drop in games that had a single-digit margin is minimal (from 62.9% to 59.1%).
The most-recent round (22) brings more proof. Olympiacos Piraeus prevailed over Real Madrid by a single point (79-80), Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens bested Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz (80-76) and Valencia Basket beat CSKA (103-99) by 4, Fenerbahce topped Brose Bamberg by 8 (77-69) and the biggest difference didn’t exceed 13 points (Unicaja Malaga 81-68 Anadolu Efes Istanbul).
The champions of thrillers
In the first 22 rounds, two Spanish teams have played the most games that were decided by a single possession: Baskonia and Unicaja have the same number of thrilling finishes, but the former won more of them (4-3 versus 2-5). The unofficial champions of thrillers come from Greece. Olympiacos has a 5-1 record in such games, with the one defeat coming from Bamberg (67-65, Round 12), while it’s coming off a close win over Madrid (79-80). And Panathinaikos has a 4-1 record, with the only defeat coming at the hands of Baskonia (85-84 in Round 5).
Bamberg, Khimki Moscow Region, Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, Zalgiris Kaunas, Baskonia are the rest of the teams that have a winning record in emergency situations. Madrid dropped to 50%, which it shares with Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv and Valencia. On the other hand, AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan, CSKA, Unicaja, the title-holders and third-ranked Fenerbahce, FC Barcelona Lassa and Efes all have losing records in such situations. Regarding the last two, they can only improve since they have three defeats in as many games.
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GAMES WITH A DIFFERENCE OF +/- 3 POINTS |
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Olympiacos Piraeus |
5-1 |
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Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens |
4-1 |
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Brose Bamberg |
3-1 |
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Khimki Moscow Region |
2-1 |
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Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade |
2-1 |
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Zalgiris Kaunas |
4-2 |
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Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz |
4-3 |
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2-2 |
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Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv |
2-2 |
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Valencia Basket |
2-2 |
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2-3 |
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1-2 |
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Unicaja Malaga |
2-5 |
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Fenerbahce Dogus Istanbul |
1-4 |
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FC Barcelona Lassa |
0-3 |
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Anadolu Efes Istanbul |
0-3 |