Euroleague TOP16 Round 14 - Decision time!
Posted 07. april 2015
The 2014-15 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top 16 has come to its final round with a lot left to decide. There are five teams fighting for three unclaimed playoff spots, while seven of eight top-four places in Group E and Group F are still to be settled, thereby determining the playoffs matchups. Five Thursday games will decide which teams make the playoffs and which team wins Group F, while the remaining three games on Friday will decide the winner of Group E.
With the final playoff spot and the first place in the group still to be determined, drama awaits in Group F. What's more, a pair of derbies - an all-Turkish delight and an all-Spanish clash - will decide the final standings. There is plenty at stake in the Game of the Week, an Istanbul derby in which Fenerbahce Ulker hosts cross-town rival Anadolu Efes on city's Asian side on Thursday. Efes will claim fourth place with a victory, and look forward to a playoff duel with either Real Madrid or Barcelona. A loss would diminish its playoff hopes and force them to play a waiting game to see how the all-Spanish battle in which Unicaja Malaga hosts Laboral Kutxa Vitoria pans out later that same night. Laboral would claim fourth place only if they win and Efes lose. Fenerbahce and Efes played three times this season. Efes won a Turkish League game and the Turkish Cup finals between them, while Obradovic and Fenerbahce won their Top 16 Round 7 contest on the road 71-77. The Top 16's two best offensive rebounding teams - Unicaja (13.1) and Laboral (13.3) – also played each other three times this season, with Unicaja sweeping their Spanish League games and Laboral winning their Top 16 Round 7 contest 79-74. Laboral ranks second in scoring on the road in the Top 16 (83.5) but they have won only one of their last six road games. Unicaja is coming off a record performance in Nizhny where they accumulated performance index rating of 130 – their best ever in the Top 16 - and want to finish their season with a victory on their home floor.
09.04.2015
10.04.2015
