Stats review: Looking back to prepare for this week's key clashes

Some statistical insight to the games that will finalize the playoff picture

The final round of the BKT EuroCup has arrived with seven teams vying for five remaining postseason berths and five teams competing for the two remaining byes to the quarterfinals as the drama of the regular season will not be decided until the final buzzer next on Wednesday.

While Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv and Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem control their destinies among the teams racing for second place in their respective groups, things in the middle of the standings are a lot more complicated.

Buducnost VOLI Podgorica’s result in Round 18 will go a long way to settling things in Group A as it travels to Lithuania to take on Wolves Twinsbet Vilnius. Buducnost crystallizes the top-three teams in the current standings above as playoff qualifiers with a win while Wolves gets in with a win, but leaves the other two spots up for grabs. In their first matchup in Round 9, Buducnost shot 13 for 27 from beyond the arc to cruise to a comfortable win as its defense stepped up. Buducnost has risen into the top four in offensive efficiency but has shot 43% from beyond the arc at home compared to 31% on the road — a trend Wolves will need to hope holds in Twinsbet Arena to find its way into the postseason field.

Besiktas Fibabanka Istanbul and ratiopharm Ulm are both in with a win, with Besiktas hosting six-win Dolomiti Energia Trento and Ulm facing a Hapoel Tel Aviv team that with a win in Germany can secure a bye into the quarterfinals. Besiktas put together a standout defensive performance to beat Trento in Italy in Round 9 while Ulm scored perhaps its biggest win of the season in a two-point victory over Hapoel that same week. Even if Wolves upends the standings with a win, Ulm – whose youth has been apparent in its ups and down defensively this season – will likely need to find a way to score another victory against one of the league’s hottest teams to keep their season alive.

Things are a bit less complicated in Group B where the final seedings may hinge on Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse’s ability to go to La Fonteta and defeat a Valencia Basket team that still has something to play for as a win will assure it home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. Bourg fell victim to one of Valencia’s ten 100-point games — and considering that it has not scored less than 96 points in a home game this season — may have to rise to that level to score the upset.

Holding the top efficiency differential among the teams yet to punch their ticket to the playoffs, U-BT Cluj-Napoca will travel to Greece to take on Aris Midea Thessaloniki — a team that has had a hard getting shots to fall on the year, but has done a good enough job getting stops to notch a few upset wins when it has. After starting the year 0-3, Cluj has turned its season around and holds tiebreakers over Group B’s other nine-win teams giving it the inside track to one of the two remaining playoff slots.

Umana Reyer Venice has scratched and clawed its way here with intense defense and rebounding over the second half of the season and will have a chance to finish the regular season on a high note at home against 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys. After beating Cluj to create this scenario in Round 17, Lietkabelis has not relented following their 2-8 start. Reyer has to avoid the upset to have a chance to move on.

The tension heading into the final week of the season is palpable even as the cut line is a little higher than it was a year ago.