25/26 European basketball discussion: Euroleague/BBL/ACB/LegaA/LNB/TBL..

[CLS63]

It was so relieving to win against Real Madrid and recover right after the loss against Panathinaikos. Who would have thought we would get such a contribution from Errick McCollum as well? He is scoring incredibly well despite being 37 years old. Nobody expected him to play this impressive to be honest.

Anadolu Efes lost against Panathinaikos by 15 points unfortunately. The defensive problems persist and the coach Luca Banchi can't find a solution. Maybe just the roster isn't good enough to keep consistency. I remember times they had much better players just like we had.

[yenerbatmaz]

As a Turk, I want Turkish teams to be champions, but right now it looks like Anadolu Efes cannot even play Play IN.
Fenerbahçe is in good form, but the real favorite is Panathinaikos. I don't know what they can do when it comes to the Final Four, but they are incredibly good on their home court. They increased the Efes match, which was neck and neck until the end of the match yesterday, to a 15-point lead in the last 2 minutes. They have good staff.
McCollum seems to have added a lot of strength to Fenerbahçe.  There are many candidates for the Euroleague title this year and anything can happen in the Final Four.

[LTU_btc]

Big and important Partizan win in Monaco which seriously improves their situation. Olympiacos wins against Barcelona, that's something expected. In 4th quarter it looked that Oly will run away, but Barca somehow stayed in fight until last seconds. But Olympiacos had last attack. It probably didn't looked how they planned, but Fournier somehow made buzzer-beater. Olympiacos remain on 1st place.

Real Madrid dosent have the team to win the euroleague this season,other teams have uped their quality and they just arent that good this season. I think for them they can call this a winning season if they reach playoffs somehow. Also match to watch tonight is Monaco vs Partizan. Monaco playing with 3 of their best players against a team that has won for the first time ever 3 in a row in away games.

Already from first games this season it looked that Real is weaker this season. Their main players is getting old, they didn't made any serious additions to their roster. They still can reach playoff or at least play-in, but can't imagine them in Final 4. In summer they will have lot of work to rebuild squad.

[Joca97]

Big and important Partizan win in Monaco which seriously improves their situation. Olympiacos wins against Barcelona, that's something expected. In 4th quarter it looked that Oly will run away, but Barca somehow stayed in fight until last seconds. But Olympiacos had last attack. It probably didn't looked how they planned, but Fournier somehow made buzzer-beater. Olympiacos remain on 1st place.

Real Madrid dosent have the team to win the euroleague this season,other teams have uped their quality and they just arent that good this season. I think for them they can call this a winning season if they reach playoffs somehow. Also match to watch tonight is Monaco vs Partizan. Monaco playing with 3 of their best players against a team that has won for the first time ever 3 in a row in away games.

Already from first games this season it looked that Real is weaker this season. Their main players is getting old, they didn't made any serious additions to their roster. They still can reach playoff or at least play-in, but can't imagine them in Final 4. In summer they will have lot of work to rebuild squad.

Like i said i expect another win from my team and they gaved it for us. Fourth win in a row and this gives us hope for top 6 places. Plus with Olympiacos win this gives us a boost and we are tied with Barcelona. Now going on a break and we have two games at home that we must win

[AHOYBRAUSE]

I saw a crazy video from the eurobacket youtube channel about some stupid NBA plans they have regarding some new European based league under their umbrella. And they aren't even talking about adding existing teams but creating new teams in big metropolitan areas in Europe and maybe even other areas.
Bad enough that the Euroleague will have the final 4 in Dubai, and plans to add a Dubai team into the roster but these money hungry fools really try to destroy basketball in Europe, it's quite sad to be honest.

[CLS63]

I don't remember if we discussed it but the Final Four is going to take place in United Arab Emirates for this season. Arabians are really taking control of many organizations recently. Just like they do with the Italian and Spanish Super Cups in football for example.

https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/euroleague/news/abu-dhabi-to-host-2025-turkish-airlines-euroleague-final-four/

I have really missed the days Final Four being organized in my country, Turkey. The last time it happened was 2017. I hope I see it in Istanbul once again in the near future. I would like to watch a Final Four at a stadium instead of my TV.

[LTU_btc]

I saw a crazy video from the eurobacket youtube channel about some stupid NBA plans they have regarding some new European based league under their umbrella. And they aren't even talking about adding existing teams but creating new teams in big metropolitan areas in Europe and maybe even other areas.
Bad enough that the Euroleague will have the final 4 in Dubai, and plans to add a Dubai team into the roster but these money hungry fools really try to destroy basketball in Europe, it's quite sad to be honest.

I saw it too. They don't even talk about inviting clubs from countries which are crazy for basketball like Turkey, Serbia, Greece, Lithuania. These clubs generate main part of Euroleague income and interest. They are talking about franchise of football clubs like Man City or PSG. But these markets have not much (or zero if we talk about UK) interest in basketball, I doubt that fans of football clubs will start following just because their club logo.
Before these details were published, I was waiting for NBA league in Europe, but now I have no interest in it at all. You know what, that Doncic trade summarized reasons why I don't like NBA - it's just business without any passion.

I don't remember if we discussed it but the Final Four is going to take place in United Arab Emirates for this season. Arabians are really taking control of many organizations recently. Just like they do with the Italian and Spanish Super Cups in football for example.

https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/euroleague/news/abu-dhabi-to-host-2025-turkish-airlines-euroleague-final-four/

It's all about the money unfortunately. I'm wondering how many fans from Europe will travel to UAE. Football example showed that's very difficult to make sold out stadiums even with biggest stars playing.

[LTU_btc]

No Euroleague action this week as we have break for Cup tournaments. Will be interesting to see what upsets this year we will see.
In Italy we have clash of Olimpia and Virtus already in 1/4 final. In Greece if I'm not mistaken Olympiacos and Panathinaikos can't face until final, and I don't see anyone capable to stop them. Same can be said about Serbian Korace cup and Partizan vs Crvena Zvezda.
French Cup have no obvious favorite with all 3 Euroleague teams. Spanish Copa Del Rey is most interesting cup tournament with 8 really strong teams playing.
Turkish Cup - most likely it will be classic between Fenerbahche - Efes, but maybe other Istanbul clubs can make an upset?
Germany - Bayern is huge favorite there. In Lithuania unfortunately Rytas got eliminated in 1/4 final, so Zalgiris shouldn't have problems. Only Wolves is capable to make problems for them, but I don't believe.
And already tomorrow IsraelCup final between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem, should be good game.
Sorry for a bit lenghty post .

[ingiltere]

Turkish Cup - most likely it will be classic between Fenerbahche - Efes, but maybe other Istanbul clubs can make an upset?

Efes is not in the Final Four of the Turkish Cup. They can't pass quarter final because they matched up with one of the best teams in Türkiye. It didn't go as you thought. Beşiktaş eliminated Anadolu Efes in the quarter final and advanced to the semi final. Allman and Terry played very efficiently. Beşiktaş made a great comeback despite being 14 points behind at one point. We beat them in the league and now we've beaten them in the cup as well.

Alimpijevic went crazy here, I think this was the turning point of the game:
https://x.com/murattaskolu/status/1889762959217270869

Official X account announced that we'll be in Urfa with an Urfa kebab.

https://x.com/BJK_Basketbol/status/1889762476989841492

Mersin Spor also defeated Tofaş and eliminated them. I think we will comfortably beat Mersin Spor and most likely face Fenerbahçe in the final, if they also beat Galatasaray of course. Winning the cup in such a great season would be an incredible reward for Beşiktaş basketball team.

[LTU_btc]

Efes is not in the Final Four of the Turkish Cup. They can't pass quarter final because they matched up with one of the best teams in Türkiye. It didn't go as you thought. Beşiktaş eliminated Anadolu Efes in the quarter final and advanced to the semi final. Allman and Terry played very efficiently. Beşiktaş made a great comeback despite being 14 points behind at one point. We beat them in the league and now we've beaten them in the cup as well.

Alimpijevic went crazy here, I think this was the turning point of the game:
https://x.com/murattaskolu/status/1889762959217270869

Official X account announced that we'll be in Urfa with an Urfa kebab.
https://x.com/BJK_Basketbol/status/1889762476989841492

Mersin Spor also defeated Tofaş and eliminated them. I think we will comfortably beat Mersin Spor and most likely face Fenerbahçe in the final, if they also beat Galatasaray of course. Winning the cup in such a great season would be an incredible reward for Beşiktaş basketball team.

Yeah, my post aged badly Congrats with a win of your team! And damn, Alimpijevic probably is one of most emotional coaches in Europe . Now you will be big favorite against Mersin Spor, but it's cup game where everything can happen in 40 minutes.

[Joca97]

Efes is not in the Final Four of the Turkish Cup. They can't pass quarter final because they matched up with one of the best teams in Türkiye. It didn't go as you thought. Beşiktaş eliminated Anadolu Efes in the quarter final and advanced to the semi final. Allman and Terry played very efficiently. Beşiktaş made a great comeback despite being 14 points behind at one point. We beat them in the league and now we've beaten them in the cup as well.

Alimpijevic went crazy here, I think this was the turning point of the game:
https://x.com/murattaskolu/status/1889762959217270869

Official X account announced that we'll be in Urfa with an Urfa kebab.
https://x.com/BJK_Basketbol/status/1889762476989841492

Mersin Spor also defeated Tofaş and eliminated them. I think we will comfortably beat Mersin Spor and most likely face Fenerbahçe in the final, if they also beat Galatasaray of course. Winning the cup in such a great season would be an incredible reward for Beşiktaş basketball team.

Yeah, my post aged badly Congrats with a win of your team! And damn, Alimpijevic probably is one of most emotional coaches in Europe . Now you will be big favorite against Mersin Spor, but it's cup game where everything can happen in 40 minutes.

Alimpijevic is a really good coach and is a long time in Besiktas and they always go far but cannot win a title. Maybe this will be their year i think they have a good team and have an easy match against Mersin spor that they need to win but you never know what can happen

[ingiltere]

Yeah, my post aged badly Congrats with a win of your team! And damn, Alimpijevic probably is one of most emotional coaches in Europe . Now you will be big favorite against Mersin Spor, but it's cup game where everything can happen in 40 minutes.

As we expected, Beşiktaş defeated Mersinspor and Fenerbahçe defeated Galatasaray. The final game will be Beşiktaş vs. Fenerbahçe.

Mersinspor held on well for the first three periods, but they collapsed in the fourth period. The difference in experience became evident as Beşiktaş allowed them to score only 8 points in the last period. Beşiktaş secured the victory with a 20-point margin, with Mathews and Sleva leading the scoring. However, in the final all players need to perform better.
Fenerbahçe also defeated Galatasaray by 15 points. A surprise was unlikely in this match and Fenerbahçe got the win with contributions from Hayes, McCollum, and Biberovic.

The final is open to both outcomes. These are the two best teams in the league right now, it'll be a highly anticipated match. Hopefully, Beşiktaş can lift the trophy. Winning the cup again after 2012 would be a great achievement. Even making it this far was a huge achievement, but winning the trophy would officially cement their success.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

No Euroleague action this week as we have break for Cup tournaments. Will be interesting to see what upsets this year we will see.
In Italy we have clash of Olimpia and Virtus already in 1/4 final. In Greece if I'm not mistaken Olympiacos and Panathinaikos can't face until final, and I don't see anyone capable to stop them. Same can be said about Serbian Korace cup and Partizan vs Crvena Zvezda.
French Cup have no obvious favorite with all 3 Euroleague teams. Spanish Copa Del Rey is most interesting cup tournament with 8 really strong teams playing.
Turkish Cup - most likely it will be classic between Fenerbahche - Efes, but maybe other Istanbul clubs can make an upset?
Germany - Bayern is huge favorite there. In Lithuania unfortunately Rytas got eliminated in 1/4 final, so Zalgiris shouldn't have problems. Only Wolves is capable to make problems for them, but I don't believe.
And already tomorrow IsraelCup final between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem, should be good game.
Sorry for a bit lenghty post .

Cup really has it's own rules. Paris losing again Saint Quentin at home, even though being up by 14 at the beginning of the 3rd quarter is quite a surprise!! Wonder what the odds were at that point!!
In the other cup games from last night we didn't really see any other big surprises.

Oh by the way, what do you think about German NBA vet Daniel Theis joining Monaco. After being waived by OKC I was surprised that no other NBA team picked him up. I saw he had offers from Panathinaikos and 1 other undisclosed team that offered more money than Monaco but he decided to go there. I think he is a great player and he can help Monaco A LOT!! I never understood why he got so limited time in the NBA because he is a big man that can basically do everything. He can crash the boards, good passer, can shoot 3s, plays well in defense and has an overall high basketball IQ. I hope he can show his worth in the Euroleague now and maybe some NBA teams will wake up.

[Spack17]

Oh by the way, what do you think about German NBA vet Daniel Theis joining Monaco. After being waived by OKC I was surprised that no other NBA team picked him up. I saw he had offers from Panathinaikos and 1 other undisclosed team that offered more money than Monaco but he decided to go there.

I think this team could be Fenerbahçe. Because there is a serious lack in center position at Fenerbahçe. If they managed to get Daniel Theis they were going to be successful about strengthening their roster on the road going to the championship.

As we expected, Beşiktaş defeated Mersinspor and Fenerbahçe defeated Galatasaray. The final game will be Beşiktaş vs. Fenerbahçe.

Alimpijevic is really a very successful coach and he deserves to work with a team in the Euroleague. It is an unbelievable work he does with a team like Beşiktaş that has a limited budget. I hope that they manage to win the trophy at the weekend. But I don't think they have so much chance. Fenerbahçe are currently the best team in Europe.

[LTU_btc]

Cup really has it's own rules. Paris losing again Saint Quentin at home, even though being up by 14 at the beginning of the 3rd quarter is quite a surprise!! Wonder what the odds were at that point!!
In the other cup games from last night we didn't really see any other big surprises.

Yeah, that's beauty of Cup tournaments. Like Barca already eliminated in 1/4 final gy Tenerife, despite leading most part of game. I just love Marcelinho Huertas and how he is playing being 42 years old. Now watching Unicaja - Tenerife game.
Huge upset in Germany where Bayern in 1/2 final lost to Synatinics MBC. When I saw what teams will play in German Cup, I thought that Bayern will have no problems to defend title. Before game I didn't knew any MBC players.
Theis is huge addition to Monaco, I think it's player that every Euroleague team would want to have. I don't follow much NBA, so, I have no idea why his NBA career wasn't very successful. And it's sad that he spent his prime years sitting on bench in NBA.

[LTU_btc]

Upsets in cup tournaments continues. Trento beats Olimpia Milano after dominating most part of game. But when it comes to Olimpia, maybe it's not that surprising to see such defeats. In Germany Cup taken by probably biggest tournament underdog Synatinics MBC after they beat Brose Baskets in the final.
In Lithuania Zalgiris was one buzzer beater awayfrom disaster:
https://x.com/BasketNews_lt/status/1891196868605911381
Neptunas were huge underdog, but they beat Rytas in 1/4, Wolves in 1/2 and now were so close from Cup. Maybe after such performance they will change their mind and won't sack coach Vovoras.
Another surprise in France - Le Mans takes Cup after high scoring win against Monaco in the final. Unfortunately wasn't able to watch Greek classic in the final, it was another close game and it looked that better 4th quarter will let Olympiacos to take trophy, but in the very end PAO managed to score few points in a row. Really difficult to comment without watching game .
Only Turksih Cup final wasn't interesting at all. Fenerbahche didn't had any difficulties against Beskitas. Congrats to Fenerbahche fans here, sorry @ingiltere.
And finally Spani Copa Del Rey. Just great basketball of two similar level teams. And I don't call Unicaja win as uspet or surprise because for me they're Euroleague level team
Sorry for another a bit lenghty Cup Review. Now we go into last Eurobasket qualifiers window.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

Upsets in cup tournaments continues. Trento beats Olimpia Milano after dominating most part of game. But when it comes to Olimpia, maybe it's not that surprising to see such defeats. In Germany Cup taken by probably biggest tournament underdog Synatinics MBC after they beat Brose Baskets in the final.
In Lithuania Zalgiris was one buzzer beater awayfrom disaster:
https://x.com/BasketNews_lt/status/1891196868605911381
Neptunas were huge underdog, but they beat Rytas in 1/4, Wolves in 1/2 and now were so close from Cup. Maybe after such performance they will change their mind and won't sack coach Vovoras.
Another surprise in France - Le Mans takes Cup after high scoring win against Monaco in the final. Unfortunately wasn't able to watch Greek classic in the final, it was another close game and it looked that better 4th quarter will let Olympiacos to take trophy, but in the very end PAO managed to score few points in a row. Really difficult to comment without watching game .
Only Turksih Cup final wasn't interesting at all. Fenerbahche didn't had any difficulties against Beskitas. Congrats to Fenerbahche fans here, sorry @ingiltere.
And finally Spani Copa Del Rey. Just great basketball of two similar level teams. And I don't call Unicaja win as uspet or surprise because for me they're Euroleague level team
Sorry for another a bit lenghty Cup Review. Now we go into last Eurobasket qualifiers window.

About the German cup final, the winners are actually my team. I don't think we were the biggest underdog in the whole cup since we are having an ok season. Even Frankfurt, which also played in the final 4, is below us in the rankings.
But yeah, beating Bayern in Saturday truly was a treat, we beat them for the 2nd time already this season! Obviously it helped that the final 4 was held in Weissenfels so the home town fans had a lot to celebrate. First national title, but not the first title ever. We actually won the FIBA Europe Cup in 2004, with a heavily overpaid team which cost them the license at the end of the season because they were out of funds, hahaha.

[LTU_btc]

About the German cup final, the winners are actually my team. I don't think we were the biggest underdog in the whole cup since we are having an ok season. Even Frankfurt, which also played in the final 4, is below us in the rankings.
But yeah, beating Bayern in Saturday truly was a treat, we beat them for the 2nd time already this season! Obviously it helped that the final 4 was held in Weissenfels so the home town fans had a lot to celebrate. First national title, but not the first title ever. We actually won the FIBA Europe Cup in 2004, with a heavily overpaid team which cost them the license at the end of the season because they were out of funds, hahaha.

Oh, congrats with a win of your team, mate! Looks that home walls helped a lot this time. A bit strange to see Final 4 played in such small arena, but atmosphere was great there.
Yeah, maybe you're right, Frankfurt were bigger underdogs, but still, it's big upset. And in general, not very typical Final 4 when 3 of 4 teams is outside playoff zone.
No Euroleague games this week, but we will see some of them playing for their national teams. Not that often thing in qualifiers window.

[LTU_btc]

A bit of summary what's happening in Eurobasket qualifiers. Croatia had to beat France at home, but they didn't managed to do it and it means that for the first time in history there will be no Croatia at Eurobasket. It's sad to see Croatia basketball continue to fall.
There is some upset like Portugal qualified to Eurobasket for the first time since 2011, leaving regular participant Ukraine behind them. Great Britain also qualified after long break.
BTW, teams that qualified to Eurobasket as hosts still have to play in qualifiers - it just doesn't makes sense. And one of hosts Cyprus - seems that it will be weekest team playing in Eurobasket as long as I can remember.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

A bit of summary what's happening in Eurobasket qualifiers. Croatia had to beat France at home, but they didn't managed to do it and it means that for the first time in history there will be no Croatia at Eurobasket. It's sad to see Croatia basketball continue to fall.
There is some upset like Portugal qualified to Eurobasket for the first time since 2011, leaving regular participant Ukraine behind them. Great Britain also qualified after long break.
BTW, teams that qualified to Eurobasket as hosts still have to play in qualifiers - it just doesn't makes sense. And one of hosts Cyprus - seems that it will be weekest team playing in Eurobasket as long as I can remember.

Croatia really had bad luck with their group cause the worst team (Cyprus) is already qualified so while in other groups the 3rd place is enough to go to the Eurobasket, in this group you had to become 1st or 2nd. Of course France gets first and then it's them and Bosnia & Herzegovina fighting for the last spot.
A bit of an unfair scenario but it is what it is sometimes. Losing away in Bosnia & Herzegovina by 20 lost them the tie breaker so that's why the France game was do or die and even though they fought well it wasn't enough.

Latvia beating Spain twice was also surprising, especially the win in Spain where they were like 11 point underdogs.