By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Big games need big plays made by big players. That’s exactly what we expect to see in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs that begin on Tuesday.
Ahead of that first tipoff, Eurohoops takes a look at 10 players who have defined past quarterfinals with their exploits. Whether they made the baskets that mattered, stepped up in crunch-time situations, engineered major comebacks, authored key victories, emerged as unlikely protagonists or sometimes did all of these together, these are some of the heroes of the EuroLeague Playoffs.
1. Giorgos Printezis, Olympiacos Piraeus
When: 2015 Playoffs against Barcelona
The monumental buzzer-beating triple at the end of Game 4 vs. Barcelona that sent underdog Olympiacos to the Final Four is more than enough for Giorgos Printezis to be the first and most obvious choice for this list. The Greek forward was 0-for-5 from downtown until that moment but made the bucket that was worth everything.
Still, Printezis’s contribution in the series was much more from that sensational three-pointer. He had team-highs of 22 points plus 9 rebounds in the crucial 76–63 road win that tied the series. In the tight 73–71 Game 3 victory, he dropped 19 points, once again leading all scorers.
2. Nick Calathes – Fenerbahce Beko
When: 2024 Playoffs against AS Monaco
Fenerbahce was up 2-1 following its Game 3 win, but missed the opportunity to close the series against Monaco in Istanbul, falling in Game 4.
After an intense 40-minute battle that went to overtime, Calathes took it upon himself to wrap up things up in the extra period. With Fener in need of big shots, he drained the game-tying triple with a minute remaining and then the go-ahead basket from downtown to make it 79-80. This proved to be the game-winner and a pretty historic one as Fener became the first team ever to claim victory on the road in Game 5 of the playoffs.
3. Shane Larkin – Anadolu Efes
When: 2019 Playoffs against Barcelona
“We made Shane Larkin look like Michael Jordan” then-Barcelona big man Pierre Oriola lamented ahead of his team’s playoff series against Anadolu Efes in 2019. He was reminiscing on the 37 points Larkin had dropped on the Blaugrana in the regular season as a warning to stay extra vigilant against the Efes star.
Alas, Larkin wasn’t done with Barcelona. With the series tied 1-1 after two games in Istanbul, Larkin produced 30 points on 11-of-12 shooting to push Efes to a 102–68 blowout in Game 3 on the road.
Larkin had 10 of his points by halftime when Efes took a 39–52 lead and then scored 17 over the next 9 minutes to help his team turn the game into a rout and pretty much call it a night very early. The Turkish side would end up winning the series for their first EuroLeague Final Four appearance since 2000.
4. Dusan Kecman – Partizan Belgrade
When: 2010 Playoffs against Maccabi Tel Aviv
Maccabi entered the quarterfinals against Partizan as the undisputed favorite. The Israeli champs had a better record in the regular season and the Top 16, home-court advantage, experience and quality. Indeed, 25 minutes into Game 1, Maccabi led 58–43 and nothing seemed able to slow them down.
“Challenge accepted,” said Dusan Kecman who responded to fire with fire. The Partizan veteran led the comeback charge for his team, with 16 points out of his 29 overall in the last 13 minutes. He made 7 out of 9 triples – 2 of them in the last 6 minutes as the Serbian side escaped with a superb turnaround win.
Partizan went on to make the Final Four thanks to two wins in Belgrade and came one spectacular Josh Childress putback dunk away from playing in the championship game.
5. Chris Singleton – Anadolu Efes
When: 2021 Playoffs against Real Madrid
You can put Chris Singleton’s feats in Game 5 against Real Madrid under the definition of “Stepping Up”.
In the first four games of the 2021 playoffs, Singleton averaged a mere 3.3 points. In Game 5 against a Real Madrid team that looked more than capable of winning in Istanbul, he produced perhaps his top performance ever in the EuroLeague with a career-high 26 points (8-of-10 shooting) and 8 rebounds – both game-highs.
Thanks to Singleton’s heroics, Efes beat Madrid to advance to the Final Four for their first of their back-to-back EuroLeague titles.
6. Serkan Erdogan – Baskonia
When: 2006 Playoffs against Panathinaikos
Serkan Erdogan went from “Can’t buy a bucket” in a Game 1 loss in the best-of-three quarterfinals vs. Panathinaikos to being the most decisive figure among Baskonia players in the Game 3 triumph.
Erdogan’s first trip to OAKA during the series was concluded with 2-of-10 shooting from the field. Flash forward a couple of days later and the Turkish guard shot 4-of-6 on three-pointers for a game-high 24 points (a big number in such a low-scoring affair) as Baskonia escaped Athens with a stunning 71–74 win and the ticket to the Final Four in their bags.
7. Ricky Hickman – Maccabi Tel Aviv
When: 2014 Playoffs against Olimpia Milano
Maccabi was down 84–72 on the road in Game 1 of the playoffs vs. Milan. Other teams or players would’ve likely given up, already thinking about Game 2. Not Ricky Hickman though.
Brandishing a powerful refuse-to-lose attitude, the American guard scored 6 unanswered points to bring his team close before Tyrese Rice’s free throws in the final minute completed the comeback for Maccabi to send the game to overtime.
In the extra period, Hickman was unstoppable, producing 8 points as Maccabi got the away win to take the first step toward qualifying to the Final Four. Some weeks later, they would win the EuroLeague championship in the same arena.
8. Kendrick Nunn – Panathinaikos Athens
When: 2024 Playoffs against Maccabi Tel Aviv
Kendrick Nunn had already shown the stuff he’s made from several times during the season before the series vs. Maccabi. It was then though that he made the true leap to EuroLeague superstardom.
Panathinaikos was down 1-2 against Maccabi and trailing 84–78 with 5:34 to play in Game 4. Nunn had 7 out of his game-high 27 points in less than 2 minutes as his team came back to force a return to Athens.
After a slow start for his standards, Nunn took over after the halftime break with 18 points in the last 17 minutes of the game. He erupted in the fourth period with consecutive buckets for Panathinaikos, finishing with 26 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists to lead the Greens to the win and the Final Four. The rest was history.
9. Anthony Randolph – Lokomotiv Kuban
When: 2016 Playoffs against Barcelona
One of the most legendary overtime outings ever in the EuroLeague has Anthony Randolph’s signature all over it. With 12 seconds remaining in Game 4 of the series between Lokomotiv Kuban and Barcelona, Randolph went 1-2 from the line, putting his team up by 2 instead of 3 points. On the next play, Juan Carlos Navarro scored the basket to tie the game, beating the American big man’s defense.
Randolph was then unleashed, putting up 10 points in the first 4 minutes of the extra period with a devastating barrage of buckets. He stopped at 28 points and 7 rebounds as Loko snatched the away win to survive in the quarterfinals and get the series back in Krasnodar. There, the Russian team would get the win in Game 5 to advance to the Final Four for the first time in the history of the club.
10. Bogdan Bogdanovic – Fenerbahce
When: 2017 Playoffs against Panathinaikos
Bogdan Bogdanovic’s feats in Games 1 and 2 of the 2017 quarterfinals against Panathinaikos compile one of the most impressive pairs of performances in the EuroLeague Playoffs.
With Fenerbahce trailing 44–28 early in the third quarter of Game 1, Bogdanovic delivered 15 points in the second half to lead his team to the comeback victory. He finished with 23 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
Two days later, Bogdanovic had an even more impressive display in store with an all-around beauty of 25 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists that lifted Fenerbahce to the 2-0 advantage in the series.
Neither Panathinaikos nor any other EuroLeague team could hope to halt that edition of Fenerbahce as Bogdanovic and co. went on to sweep the series and then claim the title in the Istanbul Final Four.