23/24 European basketball discussion: Euroleague/BBL/ACB/LegaA/LNB/TBL..

[AHOYBRAUSE]

I was thinking that Anadolu Efes would get a comfortable win today however I was wrong. Despite Clyburn's legendary start in the first quarter they left the match with a 64-67 loss. After Clyburn's entering the match very well the team forgot him for some reason. Clyburn who scored 17 points in the first quarter completed the match with only 22 points which is really hard to believe.I still think that the actual reason why Anadolu Efes lost the match was their not being able to get contribution from their tall players. Oturu and Jones were terrible today.

I can only imagine this must have been a very disappointing game yesterday.
64 points in a do or die game at home is just very weak. Sure Bologna is no easy stepping stone but still, they lost their last 8 away games in the Euroleague and were just 5-12 away this season.
Efes on the other hand was 13 -4 at home, so normally everybody would think they are a huge favourite in this matchup against Virtus.

Well, everything is possible, season is over for Efes now. That went quick.

[LTU_btc]

I can only imagine this must have been a very disappointing game yesterday.
64 points in a do or die game at home is just very weak. Sure Bologna is no easy stepping stone but still, they lost their last 8 away games in the Euroleague and were just 5-12 away this season.
Efes on the other hand was 13 -4 at home, so normally everybody would think they are a huge favourite in this matchup against Virtus.

Well, everything is possible, season is over for Efes now. That went quick.

It was quite difficult to recognize Efes yesterday. Things started well for them, but then scoring 13-14 points in remaining 3 quarters is something awful. Virtus before were terrible away, their last win was more than 4 months ago, and in general, their winning pace in 2nd part of season was similar like Alba or ASVEL had. But as I said, it's just one game and everything could happen. Feel sorry for Efes after they made such crazy run in end of regular season.
Maccabi just destroyed Baskonia and now will face Virtus on Friday for the last spot. Should be interesting.

[Joca97]

I can only imagine this must have been a very disappointing game yesterday.
64 points in a do or die game at home is just very weak. Sure Bologna is no easy stepping stone but still, they lost their last 8 away games in the Euroleague and were just 5-12 away this season.
Efes on the other hand was 13 -4 at home, so normally everybody would think they are a huge favourite in this matchup against Virtus.

Well, everything is possible, season is over for Efes now. That went quick.

It was quite difficult to recognize Efes yesterday. Things started well for them, but then scoring 13-14 points in remaining 3 quarters is something awful. Virtus before were terrible away, their last win was more than 4 months ago, and in general, their winning pace in 2nd part of season was similar like Alba or ASVEL had. But as I said, it's just one game and everything could happen. Feel sorry for Efes after they made such crazy run in end of regular season.
Maccabi just destroyed Baskonia and now will face Virtus on Friday for the last spot. Should be interesting.

Virtus made a huge win that gives them hope to reach the play offs. They played good through out the entire season and last 7-8 matches in the euroleague they were down in form and start losing but i think they found it against Efes and if they play in the next match like this i think they can reach the playoffs. But didnt expect Efes to lose at home at all against Virtus.

[karabiber]

Baskonia vs Virtus Bologna
Baskonia lost to Tel-Aviv in the Play-in round. Virtus Bologna, on the other hand, managed to defeat Anadolu Efes despite a lack of good offensive organization. Virtus Bologna thus qualified to play in this round for the last ticket to the Play-Offs. In the regular season games between the two teams, the away team had the advantage, but I think this time the situation will change. The Howard factor will make the difference for Baskonia. Considering the fan support and home court advantage, Baskonia is the favorite to win.

[LTU_btc]

Now we know all teams which will play in in Euroleague Playoffs - Baskonia claims last spot after beating Virtus. It was equal game for 2 quarters, but after halftime Baskoia played impressive 3rd quarter and didn't looked back after it. They didn't had Moneke tonight because of injury, but it wasn't a problem - Howard and Costello played great game, captain Sedekerskis played almost without substitutions and had big role in win too.
Playoffs will begin on Tuesday already.

[CLS63]

Baskonia managed to be the last team to qualify for play-offs by defeating Virtus. What are your predictions about the play-off matchups?




My predictions were like above. I'm not objective because of being a Fenerbahçe fan. I think that Real Madrid are going to be the champions again this year. I think that the winner of the Monaco-Fenerbahçe matchup is going to reach the finale.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

Baskonia managed to be the last team to qualify for play-offs by defeating Virtus. What are your predictions about the play-off matchups?



My predictions were like above. I'm not objective because of being a Fenerbahçe fan. I think that Real Madrid are going to be the champions again this year. I think that the winner of the Monaco-Fenerbahçe matchup is going to reach the finale.

I pretty much see it the same way as you.
There are big favourites to survive this round and honestly I don't see any of the underdogs to beat one of them in a best of 5 series.
Monaco vs Fener surely is the closest game in the 1st round but for some reason I don't see Monaco beating Fenerbahce. In recent months Fener got really strong again so I also have them on the radar for the final.

[LTU_btc]

I pretty much see it the same way as you.
There are big favourites to survive this round and honestly I don't see any of the underdogs to beat one of them in a best of 5 series.
Monaco vs Fener surely is the closest game in the 1st round but for some reason I don't see Monaco beating Fenerbahce. In recent months Fener got really strong again so I also have them on the radar for the final.

I agree with @CLS63 predictions, but I see playoff series a bit differentely. For me only Real is favorite which don't give any doubts, but still, I expect Baskonia to win at least one game. While other series, I wouldn't be surprised if all 5 games will be needed. Fenerbahche recently didn't looked so confident with some defeats both in Euroleague and Turkish league, it increase Monaco chances. Panathinaikos - Maccabi should be quite epic, and I don't even call PAO as favorite, it's 50/50 for me. I just remind that Maccabi won both games in regular season.
I also see Real becoming champions, only thing that can stop them is nature of Final 4 format and potentially one bad game there.

[LTU_btc]

Euroleague playoffs started with a bit unexpected Maccabi win at OAKA arena against Panathinaikos. It looked that PAO controls the game, but not sure what happened to them in 4th quarter where Maccabi made a comeback. Unfortunately, saw 4th quarter only partially because of problems with internet... Now main question is Baldwin injury, how serious it is.
Real dominating against Baskonia, whole 4th quarter is remainining, but difficult to expect comeback here.
Monaco - Fenerbahche and Barcelona - Olympiacos starts tomorrow.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

Euroleague playoffs started with a bit unexpected Maccabi win at OAKA arena against Panathinaikos. It looked that PAO controls the game, but not sure what happened to them in 4th quarter where Maccabi made a comeback. Unfortunately, saw 4th quarter only partially because of problems with internet... Now main question is Baldwin injury, how serious it is.
Real dominating against Baskonia, whole 4th quarter is remainining, but difficult to expect comeback here.
Monaco - Fenerbahche and Barcelona - Olympiacos starts tomorrow.

Really a weak finish to the game by Pana, quite disappointing I must admit, and unexpected.
Real beating up Baskonia on the other hand was not the biggest of surprises.

By the way, I totally missed that in Germany, Bayern lost at super weak team Heidelberg last weekend, it's hilarious. This self proclaimed best team in Germany losing against a team of this caliber is just such a joke. I read yesterday they will try to make a noe contract with Serge Ibaka (for whatever reasons) but apparently many top teams in Europe, recently Partizan also entered the teams pursuing him, are trying to get him under contract as well.

[püsür]

Euroleague playoffs started with a bit unexpected Maccabi win at OAKA arena against Panathinaikos. It looked that PAO controls the game, but not sure what happened to them in 4th quarter where Maccabi made a comeback. Unfortunately, saw 4th quarter only partially because of problems with internet... Now main question is Baldwin injury, how serious it is.
Real dominating against Baskonia, whole 4th quarter is remainining, but difficult to expect comeback here.
Monaco - Fenerbahche and Barcelona - Olympiacos starts tomorrow.

Panathinaikos's result was indeed unexpected. They lost to maccabi twice this year before. This was the third time. Somehow maccabi has become pana's nemesis. And the interesting thing is that they always lose in the last periods. Last game was the same, it ended 17-28. But Ergin Ataman made a comment interestingly, saying he promises they will be in Final Four this year, otherwise he will not be coaching PAO next year. I think he made a bluff to wake up the team, which means he took a big risk. Either the players will make a real difference and somehow make it to the final four or their adventure with Ataman will end.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

Going a bit down in European cup basketball, Germany's Chemitz NINERS won the FIBA Europe cup last night with a nice overtime win at Bahcesehir College.



They had it all going for them after winning the home game by 11 and were down by 2 with 4min to go but then the home tem made a final push and seconds before the end tied the game and sent it into overtime.

OT also was a thriller with Chemnitz coming back from some points behind.

They are really a big success story from Germany right now. All season long they have been in the top 3 of the league challenging the rich monsters of ALBA and Bayern Munich. SO proud of them and hopefully they continue going this path. Some years ago they were still in the 2nd tier league in Germany and see where they are now.

[karabiber]

Panathinaikos couldn't stop their opponent's streak in the last period and Maccabi won the first game of the series. Maccabi managed to beat Panathinaikos twice in the regular season and started the quarterfinal round with a win. In the first game, Panathinaikos paid the price for simple mistakes due to overconfidence and especially for being weak on defense. However, I can say that in this game we will see a much more determined Panathinaikos with a much tougher defense.

Coach Ataman promised to lead his team to the Final Four. Otherwise, coach Ataman said that he won't be at Pana next season. Therefore, they have no choice but to win on their way to the Final-Four. Maccabi is a dangerous team and if Pana takes this game seriously, they will be close to winning at home.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

Panathinaikos couldn't stop their opponent's streak in the last period and Maccabi won the first game of the series. Maccabi managed to beat Panathinaikos twice in the regular season and started the quarterfinal round with a win. In the first game, Panathinaikos paid the price for simple mistakes due to overconfidence and especially for being weak on defense. However, I can say that in this game we will see a much more determined Panathinaikos with a much tougher defense.

Coach Ataman promised to lead his team to the Final Four. Otherwise, coach Ataman said that he won't be at Pana next season. Therefore, they have no choice but to win on their way to the Final-Four. Maccabi is a dangerous team and if Pana takes this game seriously, they will be close to winning at home.

If you really have to spam our thread with your nonsense game recaps, at least do it for recent games.
The game you are writing about was has ended like 36 hours ago. Last night's game were Monaco vs Fenerbahce and Barcelona vs Olympiacos.

I created this thread for lovers of European basketball and I really would like to keep this thread free from useless posts that are only signature campaign spam.

[püsür]

I lost my bet on Monaco. I think Fenerbahce got a surprising win. I tried to watch the first games of the play-offs as much as possible and the first thing I see is that something is missing. At this time of the year there would be an atmosphere where the teams were playing chess with each other. But as of the first games we could only see the coach's signature reflected on the court in the Monaco - Fenerbahce game with Saras playing without the number 5 as a solution to the narrowed rotation and the shortage of big men. Maybe the fact that the old school coaches are out of the play-offs this time may have something to do with it. Neither Obradovic, nor Messina, nor Pablo Laso are in the last eight. It was also interesting that the away teams stole games in three of the four series.

[LTU_btc]

Panathinaikos tied series with Maccabi and now it goes to Belgrade. 1st half was some ups and downs, Maccabi dominating in 1st quarter and then PAO respondin in 2nd. In general, Panathinaikos looked better, but in 4th quarter there was moment when it looked that they can collapse. But it didn't happened. Career night of Sloukas and Papapetrou becoming unexpected X factor.
Baskonia tried their best, they were close to Real significant part of game, but eventually Real run away. Simply different level.

I created this thread for lovers of European basketball and I really would like to keep this thread free from useless posts that are only signature campaign spam.

Too bad that you didn't made this as self-moderated topic, but I guess that if such posts aren't often, it's not big issue.

[CLS63]

Monaco vs Fener surely is the closest game in the 1st round but for some reason I don't see Monaco beating Fenerbahce. In recent months Fener got really strong again so I also have them on the radar for the final.

It was really close from the first leg already.    I didn't like our performance against Monaco in the first half but especially thanks to our third quarter performance we managed to come back and even win by OT. Starting by a win without court advantage is really valuable for us. However the second game is tomorrow and I have a bad feeling about it that we will lose this time. 

Monaco had a better regular season period than us. So it would still be a nice start even if it comes to 1-1 before the court advantage passes to us.

[LTU_btc]

Barcelona - Olympiacos and Monaco - Fenerbahche both series is tied 1:1. You couldn't ask anything better from playoffs.
After halftime it looked that Monaco have no chance to win, their 3rd quarter was so poor, but 4th quarter was already complete opposite. Would be very surprised if this series will end before game 5 because we see fight of same level teams.
Barcelona - Olympiacos, today we already saw different kind of energy and intensity from Barca than in Game 1. They showed some elite defence tonight.

Does anyone follow BCL Final 4? Both semifinals were great, but favorites Tenerife and Unicaja won. But for me it doesn't makes sense, why they make Final 4 in Belgrade when there is 3 Spanish and 1 Greek teams is playing and nothing what could be interesting for locals.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

Does anyone follow BCL Final 4? Both semifinals were great, but favorites Tenerife and Unicaja won. But for me it doesn't makes sense, why they make Final 4 in Belgrade when there is 3 Spanish and 1 Greek teams is playing and nothing what could be interesting for locals.

Well the final four location is decided before the season even starts, at least that's what I think.

The last 2 years the final 4 was hosted in Spain ( Bilbao and Malaga ) so it's obvious they can't bring it back to Spain for the 3rd year in a row. 

Anyway, just watched the recaps of the games and to be honest, they were not too exciting, haha. Both the favourites won so, that's what it is. We will see a battle of the Spanish "best of the rest" in this one.

[LTU_btc]

Well the final four location is decided before the season even starts, at least that's what I think.

The last 2 years the final 4 was hosted in Spain ( Bilbao and Malaga ) so it's obvious they can't bring it back to Spain for the 3rd year in a row. 

Anyway, just watched the recaps of the games and to be honest, they were not too exciting, haha. Both the favourites won so, that's what it is. We will see a battle of the Spanish "best of the rest" in this one.

Nope, it was actually decided just about month ago, so, such location is even more strange:
https://www.eurohoops.net/en/fiba-champions-league/1647806/basketball-champions-league-final-four-2024-belgrade-serbia/
Back to the basketball, it's getting boring that this tournament is dominated by mediacore (with all respect) Spanish teams. In the final I will support Unicaja, it would be their 1st trophy. On the other hand, you can't not love Marcelinho Huertas who being 40 years old become MVP of whole tournament.