By John Rammas/ irammas@eurohoops.net
Although Maccabi‘s percentage was only the 43rd-best performance of all-time, it is nevertheless the best opportunity for us to talk about all those teams and players who simply couldn’t miss from some distance on the court.
TEAM TWO-POINT FIELD GOAL %
For a team with six EuroLeague trophies in its collection, perfection seems pretty ordinary. Panathinaikos OPAP Athens got close to it early in the 2009 season against EWE Baskets Oldenburg of Germany. On that night, 10 of the 12 players in the lineup shot 32 two-pointers and made 28 of them! Michael Batiste (9-for-11), Dimitris Diamantidis (0-for-1), and the team’s current leader, Nick Calathes (2-for-3), were the only players who didn’t make all of their attempts. That 28-for-32 worked out to 87.5% shooting accuracy, as close to perfect as any EuroLeague team has been this century inside the arc, and therefore still the all-time record in two-point efficiency.
Only seven teams have ever shot 80% or higher in two-point field goals.
| Panathinaikos | 87.5% (28/32) | vs. EWE Baskets 96-63 (2009-10 RS) |
| Zadar | 82.9% (34/41) | vs. Lugano Snakes 118-79 (200-01 RS) |
| Buducnost | 82.7% (29/35) | @ Haribo London Towers 88-95 (2000-01 RS) |
| FC Barcelona Lassa | 81.8% (27/33) | vs. Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius 90-66 (2012-13 RS) |
| Olympiacos | 81.1% (30/37) | @ Asseco Prokom 68-93 (2008-09 Top 16) |
| Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz | 80% (28/35) | @ AJ Milano 74-107 (2008-09 Top 16) |
| Real Madrid | 80% (24/30) | vs. Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 98-68 (2016-17 RS) |
TEAM THREE-POINT FIELD GOAL %
In order to get to the top, you have to do many things right, almost perfectly, as FC Barcelona Lassa did in 2003, en route to the first of its two EuroLeague trophies. Its 11-for-13 three-point shooting show in a regular season game against Cibona is one of the most characteristic examples. Barcelona’s 84.6% shooting percentage that night is still the best ever from long distance.
Since then, only one other team has shot 80% in three-point field goals.
| FC Barcelona Lassa | 84.6% (11/13) | vs. Cibona VIP 104-82 (2002-03 RS) |
| Fenerbahce Istanbul | 80% (8/10) | @ Olympiacos Piraeus 70-84 (2010-11 Top 16) |
TEAM FREE THROW %
Good defense is one way to stop the rival offense, and fouling is another, unless you’re playing against Real Madrid. This is what Ural Great tried to do in 2002, but without the desired result. The proof: Madrid made all 34 of its 34 free throw attempts, which contributed to the team’s third-most productive EuroLeague game so far this century.
| Real Madrid | 100% (34/34) | @ Ural Great 104-113 (2001-02 Top 16) |
INDIVIDUAL TWO-POINT FIELD GOAL %
Luis Scola played in 144 games over seven EuroLeague seasons with Baskonia – then known as Tau Ceramica. He scored a total of 2,054 points (14.3 on average) and had a career-high of 36 points (13-for-20 two-point field goals, 10-for-11 free throws). And yet, it is the second-most productive performance of his career that earned his place here. By making 15 of 16 two-point field goals among his 34 points total in a 59-98 road win against Benetton Basket in the 2005 playoffs, he holds the all-time record with 93.8% accuracy inside the arc.
Only five players have shot over 90% in two-point field goals.
| Luis Scola (Tau Ceramica) | 93.8% (15/16) | @ Benetton Basket 59-98 (2004-05 PO) |
| Nikola Pekovic (Partizan Igokea) | 92.9% (13/14) | vs. AXA FC Barcelona 81-78 (2007-08 RS) |
| D’or Fischer (Maccabi Electra) | 91.7% (11/12) | @ Cibona 81-79 (2008-09 RS) |
| David Andersen (CSKA Moscow) | 91.7% (11/12) | @ FC Barcelona 70-91 (2004-05 Top 16) |
| Beno Udrih (Union Olimpija) | 91.7% (11/12) | @ Opel Skyliners 56-79 (2001-02 RS) |
INDIVIDUAL THREE-POINT FIELD GOAL %
Saulius Stombergas played just four EuroLeague seasons, each with a different team – 2000-01 Tau Ceramica, 2001-02 Efes Pilsen, 2002-03 Zalgiris Kaunas, 2004-05 Ulker – but they were more than enough to make history. In fact, his first season was enough. The eyewitnesses were AEK and everyone else at the Olympic Sports Center Athens for the opening game of the 2001 playoffs. With an almost-perfect game and a career-high 39 points (4-for-4 two-point field goals, 9-for-9 three-point field goals, 4-for-5 free throws) he helped his team get the away win and himself the all-time record in for three-point shooting accuracy from what was then a distance of 6.25 meters.
No one else has shot 100% on three-point field goals since in such a great number of attempts.
| Saulius Stombergas (Tau Ceramica) | 100% (9/9) | @ AEK 65-90 (2000-01 PO) |