The Turkish side will face reigning champs Panathinaikos for a place at the Final Four
Efes rolled into the playoffs where a monster clash awaits
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Regular Season
Round 34 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Anadolu Efes Istanbul steamrolled into the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs with an unprecedented run of eight successive wins to close out the regular season, the reward being a mouth-watering best-of-five series against defending champion Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens.
Having missed out on the business end of the competition in the previous two campaigns, Efes could not have asked for a more enthralling challenge as the Turkish side will lock horns with its iconic former head coach Ergin Ataman.
After winning the EuroLeague in his first season with Panathinaikos last year, Ataman will surely face an emotional blockbuster against Efes after lifting back-to-back titles with the Turkish outfit in 2021 and 2022 amid a glorious spell with the club.
On Friday night, Efes became the first EuroLeague team in the round-robin era (since 2016) to close the regular season with eight straight victories. Eight rounds ago, Efes were 13th and two wins short of the play-in. Now they’re in the top six and playoff bound after an 87-77 home win over Zalgiris Kaunas, improving their record to 20-14 after a series of impressive wins.
Five players scored in double figures against the Lithuanian side followed by Darius Thompson, who also put in a massive shift with 9 points and 8 assists. The manner in which Efes ground out a hard-fought win over Zalgiris embodied the eight-game streak, with the top performers leading by example on defense as they hustled relentlessly when the chips were down.
Zalgiris had fought back from a 19-point deficit to level the score in the closing stages, 73-73, before ironclad defense coupled with some inspired individual efforts at the other end propelled Efes to a crucial victory in the quest to enter the playoffs.
Stalwart Shane Larkin, who was instrumental in lifting the EuroLeague double under Ataman, heaped praise on his teammates after pacing Efes with 13 points, 4 assists and 2 steals, earning the player of the game accolade.
“I am extremely proud of our team, which is one of the youngest in the league. We’ve grown all season long, it’s been full of ups and downs and there were a lot of different things we’ve had to deal with,” Larkin said in his postgame comments.
“We stuck together towards the end and found our chemistry at the right time. We got to the place where we want to be, the playoffs, giving ourselves the chance to win the championship.”
Larkin stressed just how vital the team’s determination was in the face of adversity against Zalgiris, as defeat would have relegated Efes to the play-in purgatory with no room for error.
“It’s all about will at the end of the day and that’s what the playoffs are,” he said. “It comes down to who wants it more and we were able to make plays in the fourth quarter of a game that we had to win.”
The outcome was a fitting reward for head coach Luca Banchi and his assistant Tomislav Mijatovic, who selflessly made way for the Italian in January after being in charge for 11 months. Having endured a 2-5 start in the EuroLeague, Banchi got Efes firing on all cylinders when the season was on the line and now faces a head-on collision with the imperious Ataman, who is aiming to replicate his Efes accomplishment at the helm of Panathinaikos.
In his postgame comments, Banchi was endlessly appreciative for being welcomed at Efes with open arms, hailing the franchise for vesting its faith in him after he endured a tough spell at Virtus Segafredo Bologna.
“I am very happy but first of all very proud, so let me thank this group of guys. They are special and they proved that tonight, but let me also thank my coaching staff as they did an amazing job in building and preparing this team before I even arrived,” said Banchi.
“During the eight-game winning streak, most games were tight and we were always ready to respond. What impressed me the most was the defensive desire and what we have done can’t be achieved without effort and sacrifice.”
If Efes is to stun Panathinaikos and reach the Final Four, the Turkish team will need to be every bit as tenacious against Ataman’s troops in what promises to be a basketball extravaganza, keeping fans on the edge of their seats down to the wire.