By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Getting in the final rounds of the regular season always provided drama, however this time around things are crazier than ever. As the official EuroLeague website calculated, there’s a total of 99 possible ties that may play a role in the final standings and the three remaining playoffs spots and even a seven-team tie is possible!
Per EuroLeague:
There are 35 combinations of three-way ties possible at the end of Round 30 next week; 35 possible four-way ties; 21 possible five-way ties; 7 possible six-way ties; and a single possibility that seven teams are tied with 15-15 records for those three playoffs places.
What’s more, some of the ties might resolve one, two or all three open playoff spots, depending on other results.
Despite that complexity, however, it’s also possible that all the playoffs qualifiers may be clear as soon as the end of Round 29 on Friday.
That would be the case if Panathinaikos OPAP Athens defeats visiting Real Madrid; if KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz beats Anadolu Efes Istanbul and Olympiacos Piraeus loses to Zalgiris Kaunas; and if AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan defeats Fenerbahce Bekos Istanbul while Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv and FC Bayern Munich both lose. Keep in mind that all of the above must happen to complete the playoffs picture. Otherwise, it’s on to the last games of the regular season in Round 30 to decide at least one – and perhaps all three – of the playoffs vacancies.
Of course, five teams have already qualified to the playoffs – Fenerbahce, CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid, Efes and FC Barcelona Lassa – but only one of those teams know its final place, Efes, which is sure to finish fourth.
The rest could find out their final positions this week. Fenerbahce and CSKA would finish first and second if both are victorious, leaving third place for Madrid, while Barcelona would finish fifth with a win.
But with seven teams between 15 and 13 victories as we speak – Baskonia, Bayern, Maccabi, Milan, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and Zalgiris – the fact remains that any of these 99 ties can occur.
And that by itself is a reason for applause. Three seasons into a revolutionary 30-game format – the first in elite European team sports in which all teams play each other – the EuroLeague is as competitive as possible.
In fact, every single Round 29 game has playoffs ramifications, some of them in the do-or-die category. And depending on how Round 29 goes, all eight games in Round 30 – the last of those would be the 240th of the regular season – could impact the top half of the standings, as well.
To say the least….GameON!