By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
There are more than 60 scenarios regarding which three teams will get the final “golden” tickets. Teams that were previously among the favorites, not only for a postseason place but also possibly home-court advantage, see their fate now depending on other squads and results that they can’t control.
Others are now relevant once more despite being considered just strugglers some months ago. There’s talk about every different situation, combination, and circumstances in this heated race. Here are some of the most interesting quotes ahead of decisive Round 30.
1. Losing the offensive backbone
Olympiacos approached the final, and most crucial, stretch of the EuroLeague regular season minus its top offensive guards when it comes to both scoring and facilitating: Captain Vassilis Spanoulis and Janis Strelnieks.
After a blowout loss to Gran Canaria, Olympiacos coach David Blatt couldn’t help but wonder how different his team’s situation would be with these two players on board.
“We are playing without our two main ball guards. You take the two main ball guards out of any team and I want to see what they do. And this is not the first time we’ve been in this situation. But you’ve got to deal with that, too, sometimes and we’ve got to find a way.”
2. Providing some indirect motivation
Zalgiris Kaunas is alive and well in the battle for a playoffs spot and might enter the postseason for a second season in a row if they beat an injury-plagued Real Madrid on the road and some other results conclude in their favor.
Zalgiris seemed so far out of the race, sitting in 13th place with a 9-15 record and six games left, that two games later, after his team lost in Kaunas, FC Bayern Munich coach Dejan Radonjic wondered if the Lithuanian side still had chances.
“Zalgiris’s chances? I don’t think it’s real. It’s possible? OK,” Radonjic said when he was told him that Zalgiris still had mathematical chances to survive.
The team from Kaunas has kept those slim chances by winning five games in a row now. And who knows, they might get the job done in Madrid.
3. Dreaming big
Coaches and players usually use the standard “one game at a time” quote, especially in situations like the battle for a spot in the 2019 EuroLeague playoffs. Zalgiris Kaunas center Brandon Davies though has learned to dream big, especially after last season’s accomplishment of the Lithuanian team making the Final Four for the first time since 1999.
And he can’t count his team out of anything, in any way.
“We’re still in the mix. I’m not giving up on our team. Obviously, some things have to go well for us. I think we’ve proven that it’s possible. Last year everyone counted us out as well and we made it to the Final Four. Maybe the people that were doing this interview last year, predicting the Final Four… we weren’t in there. You can’t really count anybody out. Our first step is to reach the playoffs, but I’m not counting us out until someone tells us it’s impossible.”
4. Not high school kids
After his team saw its playoffs hopes postponed at the last millisecond of Round 29 by a miraculous shot from Rudy Fernandez of Real Madrid, Panathinaikos OPAP Athens head coach Rick Pitino was not crying.
When asked if the shot could also hurt the Greens psychologically as they try to take another chance to qualify at home against Buducnost VOLI Podgorica this week, Pitino would have none of it.
“These are professional basketball players. When we won against CSKA with a long shot banked in, it didn’t help our psychology,” he said. “I would hope that professional basketball players come back and respond in a good way. They’re not high school kids. So we won a lucky game on the road, and we lost at home with a lucky shot. But if we take the shots we took down the stretch [against Madrid], then we won’t be in the playoffs.”
5. Sarunas Jasikevicius using sage advice
Zalgiris Kaunas has been back in the game for a playoffs spot thanks to a 5-0 winning streak they have achieved in the last weeks. It’s simple math for Sarunas Jasikevicius since one of his former coaches said to him that some wins in a row is all that his squad needs to jumpstart its engines.
“Xavi Pascual told me: The biggest secret? Not lose, three or four in a row. If you win three or four in a row, you’re back in it,” Jasikevicius said after the win over Olympiacos.
6. Confusion
There are over 60 (!) scenarios regarding the teams that will clinch the three remaining playoffs spots. It’s bewildering to specialists and journalists. So you can imagine why Olimpia Milano guard Mike James had a question for his Twitter followers regarding his team’s place in the table.
“I have a question we r tied with Olympiacos Zalgiris and Maccabi and we have the tiebreaker on all of them. Even beat Olympiacos 2 times so why are we not currently 8th. Anybody can answer this for me?”
The answer is that Zalgiris beat two of those other teams twice and is 5-1 in games between the four of them, while Milan is 4-2. As such, if all of them lose this week, Zalgiris goes to the playoffs in eighth place. If two or more of them win, well, it gets complicated…
7. Playing fair.
Anadolu Efes Istanbul traveled to Spain for its Round 29 game against KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz having already secured the fourth spot and thus home-court advantage for the playoffs. It was a matter of pride for coach Ergin Ataman for his team to give everything to win over the home side.
Efes won and Ataman congratulated his players while “apologizing” to Baskonia. Hey, a team plays only to win, right?
“First, I am sorry about Baskonia, but we were fair to our game. I gave chances to players who didn’t have more minutes, like Tibor Pleiss, Sertac Sanli and Bugrahan Tuncer, but all of us, especially in the second half, played great basketball. Tibor had a great game but also our guards — many assists, perfect basketball. I like my team’s basketball. I am sorry about Baskonia, but I hope they will be in [the playoffs] next week.”
8. Problems at the end of the road
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan fought through a challenging season and against various obstacles (Nemanja Nedovic’s and Arturas Gudaitis’ injuries) to reach the last lap with a chance for the playoffs. So coach Simone Pianigiani would hate to see his team’s effort go to waste now.
“We spent a lot of energy all season to be here and I think that my players really put everything on all these games. I am only sad tonight because it was our last game at home and with so many people [watching in the stands], we didn’t play at the top like many times before. We have the opportunity to play for the playoffs until the last game. This is something which, for us, I have to give to my players this kind of congratulations.”