All signs pointed to the 7DAYS EuroCup Semifinals series between UNICS Kazan and Virtus Segafredo Bologna becoming something special. And so it was.
Best of 2021: A record-setting semifinals finale
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Whether using the eye test or crunching the numbers, all signs pointed to the 7DAYS EuroCup Semifinals series between UNICS Kazan and Virtus Segafredo Bologna becoming something special. And so it was.
Virtus entered the semis with an 18-0 record while UNICS, at 13-4, was tied for the EuroCup's second-best mark. Virtus boasted the regular season MVP in Milos Teodosic and the Top 16 MVP in Vince Hunter among its cast of stars. UNICS had Jamar Smith, who would soon be named the season-long EuroCup MVP, and defensive ace John Brown III among its leaders.
EuroCup fans got the excellence they deserved through the first two games, with each team winning by 4 at home to set up a do-or-die Game 3 in Bologna on April 14, 2021. The winner would advance to the EuroCup Finals and the 2021-22 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague; the loser's continental season would be finished.
Game 3 delivered a scoring bonanza that shattered many previous playoffs records. Indeed, UNICS's 100-107 road win went down in history as the highest-scoring non-overtime playoff game in either competition organized by Euroleague Basketball since 2000.
UNICS had three scorers in the 20s on that night led by Smith, with 24. Okaro White added 22 and Brown 20. Teodosic and Marco Belinelli combined for 49 for Virtus.
The game's combined total of 207 points was the most in any EuroCup or Turkish Airlines EuroLeague playoff game except a double-overtime 2006 EuroCup Eighthfinals game between Aris Thessaloniki and Panionios that ended 112-105.
UNICS also tied the record for most points in a non-overtime game at the quarterfinal stage or later in the EuroCup or the EuroLeague. That accomplishment is shared by Hemofarm Vrsac, which downed Makedonikos Kozani 107-84 in the first leg of the two-game 2004-05 semifinals.
Finally, UNICS's point tally was the most ever by a road team in the playoffs of either competition, eclipsing Anadolu Efes Istanbul's total in a 68-102 victory at FC Barcelona in the 2019 EuroLeague Playoffs.
By all accounts, it was a game for the history books.