Sportradar breaks down the exciting showdowns in the quarterfinals
Stats review: A look ahead at the playoffs
Stats
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The quarterfinals of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague have arrived with no shortage of intrigue. What can we learn about the action to come from how these teams fared against one another in the regular season?
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul vs. Paris Basketball
Facing off twice in the month of March due to a scheduling quirk as their first matchup was postponed from December, Fenerbahce beat Paris twice, but only by a total of 5 points. Not unlike their two losses to Real Madrid — the team that it beat on the road in the Play-In Showdown to get here, Paris established a rhythm offensively in both of those games but could not quite close the deal. It remains a unique team to defend, playing as much pick-and-roll as any team in EuroLeague history and scored steadily out of ball screens and one-on-one situations against a Fenerbahce team that rose in the standings by virtue of its offensive prowess as it found mixed results guarding on the ball for much of the season.
As prolific as Paris has been in pick-and-rolls this season offensively, its ability to slow down Fenerbahce in the two-man game and stay out of rotation will likely play a key role in this series as well. Marko Guduric and Errick McCollum combined to score 43 points in Fenerbahce’s win in late March, which saw it erase a 13-point deficit entering the fourth quarter to secure a 1-point win. Fenerbahce generated 25.5 points per game with passes out of pick-and-rolls in their two games against Paris — well above its 14.9 season average. No EuroLeague defense takes away the three as effectively as Fenerbahce, and, when it is breaking down defenses consistently on the other end, its 41% shooting from beyond the arc in catch-and-shoot situations tips the math of games in a way that has been very difficult for opposing teams to overcome all season.
Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens vs. Anadolu Efes Istanbul
No quarterfinal pairing had more uneven regular season encounters than Panathinaikos and Efes. The defending champions lost by 26 in Istanbul back in Round 15 in their worst offensive performance of the season playing without Kendrick Nunn, but had their fourth-most efficient showing in a 15-point win with Nunn scoring 36 in Round 26.
These are also the EuroLeague's two hottest teams. While Panathinaikos won 8 of 10 to position itself for home-court advantage in the quarterfinals, Efes has won eight straight with its last loss coming in that game in OAKA Altion in early February. Both Panathinaikos and Efes have scored 1.13 points per possession over those respective stretches. In a year where efficiency has reached an all-time high and Panathinaikos led the league by scoring 1.07 points per possession on the season overall, these two teams have taken their game to a different level in recent weeks.
Who can stay hot among Elijah Bryant, Shane Larkin, Kendrick Nunn and Kostas Sloukas will be something to monitor as both defenses face daunting challenges.
AS Monaco vs. FC Barcelona
Barcelona beat Monaco twice this season as its opportunistic three-point shooting and efforts off the ball defensively allowed it to establish early leads that it never relinquished. Barcelona was one of five teams to allow fewer than 1.00 points per possession this season, but so was Monaco as both teams held their own defensively on the year.
What kind of rhythm Monaco can find is a point of interest as it never really got on track in either of its games against Barcelona. It scored only 20 points in spot-up situations in those contests — roughly half of its average for the season. Neither Elie Okobo nor Jordan Loyd got much going, scoring only 0.76 points per possession — well below the 1.08 points per possession standard they set the rest of the year as their shot-making is a very important part of this offense. Monaco was very potent in ball screens this season and played one-on-one as much as any team in recent EuroLeague history, so how their guards bounce back in the postseason from some of their lower moments earlier in the year is certainly a plotline to follow in this series. The addition of Daniel Theis will certainly help Monaco's cause.
Olympiacos Piraeus vs. Real Madrid
Olympiacos beat Madrid by 10 in both of their matchups this season, but have not faced them since they snapped their six-game winning streak in mid-January. Finishing the season winning seven of eight, Madrid has been playing its best basketball of the season recently, but has some things to prove against Olympiacos, which picked them apart in pick-and-rolls during their previous encounters. Olympiacos generated 41 points per game playing out of ball screens in their wins with both Evan Fournier and Thomas Walkup playing especially well.
On the other end, the Reds held Madrid to just 26.5 points created per game out of pic- and-rolls — some 10 points below its season average. While Madrid was quite effective in the open floor in those losses, Los Blancos struggled to score in the half-court — something they have done very consistently throughout their rise into the playoff picture. Scoring 1.03 points per possession in the half court over its last eight games after averaging only 0.96 points per possession prior to that point, Madrid has done a noticeably better job getting Walter Tavares and Usman Garuba involved inside and taking some pressure off its inconsistent three-point shooting. How well that growth offensively translates will be key against an Olympiacos team led by Sasha Vezenkov that has been extremely tough to beat in Piraeus.