EL 2023/24 - The Play-In Tournament

[Levenspiel]

• (1) Maccabi - Baskonia for the 7th place
• (2) Efes - Virtus for the 2nd round
• (3) Loser of (1) - Winner of (2) for the 8th place.

Which two teams will advance to the play-offs?

[iskoch]

Maccabi and Efes will be there I think.

I am really sorry for Real, it will be a tough one for them.

[Edgar]

I have feeling Baskonia will beat Maccabi in the Belgrade. Very similar teams. Details will decide.

[paspalj]

Maccabi and Efes will be there I think.

I am really sorry for Real, it will be a tough one for them.

I feel this way too. It will be amazing to see Efes beating Real.

[janketa]

Clyburn said for himself that he is still the best SF in EL. What an example of self-love
He has potential to be the best, it's true, he was the best too, but now he is just one selfish son of the bitch on the court who spoils Efes's game

I always repeated that Efes has one of the best backcourts, now could be added that after entering Oturu and Osmani with regular roles and playing time(and 1st of all without Zizic), frontcourt isn't that bad like it used to be. Duo Zizic-Jones was the worst in the history of EL

Weak spots in the team are Clyburn and Jones, especially "the best SF"
But still, efes has potential for beating anyone and losing to anyone(like Alba).

In play in they are favorite against Virtus, but if they win next game depends who is the opponent, Maccabi is better option just because neutral court.

[saras]

Maccabi will win baskonia and then lose 3-0 from PANATHINAIKOS and efes will easily beat virtus and then it will be tough for them in baskonia, because they both depend on one player, larkin and howard. however larkin is obvisouly much better and efes will win that. howard is a clown taking 15 3's every game, even if he scores 30, he will still do it by causing his team to lose 15 possesions and in defence its like playing with 4 people with him on the floor. real will have a tough time with efes, but they will be in the f4. apart from 3-4 players efes cant match the roster depth of real

[janketa]

Maccabi will win baskonia and then lose 3-0 from PANATHINAIKOS and efes will easily beat virtus and then it will be tough for them in baskonia, because they both depend on one player, larkin and howard. however larkin is obvisouly much better and efes will win that. howard is a clown taking 15 3's every game, even if he scores 30, he will still do it by causing his team to lose 15 possesions and in defence its like playing with 4 people with him on the floor. real will have a tough time with efes, but they will be in the f4. apart from 3-4 players efes cant match the roster depth of real

HCA is very important in play off. The whole regular season is played just because that. Pao worked hard to reach that and now they have the easiest path to the final of all teams. I mean Maccabi(probably) with hca and away on neutral court is easy to predict. Then Monaco(or Fener) in semi, again the weakest opponent for such type of the game.

Efes looked like circus at the begining of the season with clown Can as coach, they lost momentum and chance to fight for hca in 1st part of the season. Though roster is among top4

Howard is like Willbekin, circus player, selfish clown, wild shooter without limit, and there is big difference between those clowns and players like Larkin, De Colo and even James last seasons

[Levenspiel]

Guys, Howard is evolving. He indeed had a shooting mania previously and it killed his team when they were not falling, but he has changed his game (something Wilbekin failed to do). If he's defended well, many times you will see he's putting the ball down and creating something inside. I started to like him more and more.

I also think Maccabi will be the 7th, and the ticket for the 8th place will be tough in Vitoria. That's why I was hoping for virtus win yesterday. I give only a slight edge to Efes, based on the current trends of both teams.

[Levenspiel]

Clyburn said for himself that he is still the best SF in EL. What an example of self-love
He has potential to be the best, it's true, he was the best too, but now he is just one selfish son of the bitch on the court who spoils Efes's game.

Clyburn is still a problem but not as a total disaster as before. He had zero effort previously, couldn't defend anyone, didn't even care. For a while now, he's decent on defense and has started attacking the rim, which puts lots of pressure on the opposing bigs. He is still going for too many isos, but this is acceptable to an extent. If anyone would, you prefer him to be at least at Clyburn's level. Besides, Efes had always been ISO-heavy. I assume that's why Mijatovic is fine with it. (I am not, but who am I?)

[coinho]

Maccabi - Baskonia is 50-50 game imo.
Teams with similar quality playing at neutral court (Belgrade Arena, Maccabi played all matches expect last one at Pionir hall and trained there).

[Edgar]

At the end, me, as someone who support Panathinaikos would still rather want Maccabi in the PO than Baskonia. They are very similar. Against Baskonia we can do wonders against Howard and Kotsar/Costello in the offense and against Maccabi is not that easy but it's easier to defend Nebo and Lorenzo. The crucial argument for me wanting Maccabi is ofc empty gym in the Belgrade. If we lose in OAKA it would be very tough to play in Vitoria. Hopefully Grant will be 100% healthy to guard Baldwin and if Juancho keeps playing like he did in the last 3 games where he is our best player then I am not so worried about Colson. Colson on Grigonis/Mitoglou can be very bad for us though. Same thing goes for Baskonia. Grant guarded incredible Howard in Vitoria but Moneke destroyed us after we had +18, 15 mins before the end. Moneke against Mitoglou is painful to watch. So, very similar but because of the fans Maccabi will be hopefully our opponent.


And about Real's opponent....Efes or Baskonia can make a huge problems against them 100%. Virtus/Maccabi no chance for me. Efes and Baskonia have big guys that are shooting 3s. Howard/Marinkovic - Larkin/Beaubois is tough to guard for all those Real defenders. Also Efes has Bryant-Clyburn on the wings and that's not easy task for Hezonja and Deck. Sederkeskis with Moneke also huge problems.

One note - in the last 7 games between Real and Baskonia, Baskonia has 5 wins. In those 2 defeats, one was in the round 1 this year when Baskonia had like +6, 3 mins before the end. Baskonia won last 3 games in Madrid. It's basically the same team with CMC instead Thompson and Moneke instead Giedraitis. Also Real struggles a lot in the last period. And Efes plays great. I wouldn't be surprised if Real has huge problems against any of those 2 teams.

[Levenspiel]

Why would the EL put these games so that they're overlapping?

[paspalj]

Why would the EL put these games so that they're overlapping?

In general I think the game programming is terrible. I understand timezone limitations but there are so many times that I feel that games could have been staggered better. In this particular situation (unless I'm missing something) I don't get why Maccabi (resp. Efes) couldn't play 30 minutes earlier (resp. later).

[paspalj]

A combination of Maccabi being red hot and Baskonia being completely absent have made this game pretty one sided for the time being.

[saras]

first half is a proof why there's not a serious team that would lose from baskonia, a team dependant on that clown howard. -7 PIR so far and he is going for all time record