Every game matters in absolute terms this week: winners to the Final Four while losers go home
Trio of Game 5s guarantees EuroLeague fans peak competitive passion
What a time to be a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague fan!
After 627 fixtures over seven months in the 2023-24 season, just seven games remain. Amazingly, six of them are do-or-die, including a trio of playoffs Game 5s on Tuesday and Wednesday to determine the remaining 2024 Final Four qualifiers.
EuroLeague TV subscribers will be able to see all three games, featuring iconic clubs from five countries, in full. Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens hosts Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv on Tuesday, then on Wednesday it's AS Monaco vs. Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul followed by FC Barcelona vs. Olympiacos Piraeus.
Those destiny-defining showdowns are the very pinnacle of team sports, and thanks to the ever-increasing parity and competitiveness in the EuroLeague, fans are being treated to more Game 5s than ever. Among 16 EuroLeague Playoffs series in the last four seasons, an incredible 11 of have come down to the unmatchable drama of Game 5.
For the third time in four years, supporters of six EuroLeague clubs head into playoffs finale hoping that their team will have enough to clinch the Final Four. Once there, two more wins will let one team go home with the EuroLeague trophy.
The 2024 EuroLeague Playoffs mark just the third season out of 15 with best-of-five quarterfinals in which three series have gone the distance. It previously occurred in 2021 and 2023, but before this decade, only twice – in 2013 and 2014.
The huge benefit of home-court advantage
All season long, clubs work tirelessly to try to ensure they have home-court advantage in the playoffs. Why? The answer is simple:
In the last five seasons, higher-seeded teams that start the playoffs with home-court advantage are 16-1, including the only series this year that is complete, defending champion Real Madrid's 3-0 sweep of fellow Spanish club Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz. Since 2018, Efes has been the only lower seed to win a playoff series, doing so in four games vs. Milan in 2022 on the way to its second consecutive EuroLeague title.
But if starting a series at home gives a team great odds, finishing one that goes the distance on your own court has been nothing less than a guarantee. When series have gone down to a Game 5, home teams are a perfect 18-0 since the playoffs were formalized as best-of-five quarterfinals in 2009.
Panathinaikos, Monaco and Barcelona will be determined to make that figure reach 22-0 come the close of day on Wednesday night. But whatever the past says, however, Maccabi, Fenerbahce and Olympiacos have other ideas. They are all looking to become the first Game 5 road winners this century, a truly historic feat should one or more of them prevail this week.
This could be the season that the home-team Game 5 streak is broken, too, because all six clubs playing on Tuesday and Wednesday are well-acquainted with the high-pressure demands of Game 5. Indeed, of 19 series since 2009 that reached the limit, those six clubs have been involved in 14 of them.
Barcelona is the most experienced with six Game 5 appearances, though Olympiacos is the most successful, winning four of its own five such showdowns. The Reds, Barca and Monaco are all about to play Game 5 for the third spring in a row, while Fenerbahce took part in a Game 5 for the first time last season.
Playing at home has made all the difference until now. Tuesday and Wednesday will tell us if that remains true.
Players who have risen to the do-or-die occasion
Like their clubs, many stars playing this week know exactly what it takes to survive Game 5. Several who have already demonstrated how to send their teams to the Final Four.
Panathinaikos guard Kostas Sloukas did so last season for Olympiacos by earning Game 5 MVP honors after pairing 22 points with 6 assists in a do-or-die showdown with Fenerbahce. Sloukas has a 3-1 career mark Game 5s and is preparing to play his third in succession. In the last two, he averaged 18.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists and a 24.5 PIR in sending Olympiacos to back-to-back Final Fours. Panathinaikos will be counting on him to do the same on Tuesday.
Another Game 5 specialist is Olympiacos veteran Kostas Papanikolaou. Having returned from illness to make a major contribution to his team's Game 4 survival win against Barcelona, the Reds' captain will now be looking to build on his 4-0 record in Game 5s. Papanikolaou may not have put up huge numbers in those games – averaging 7.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists in four previous Game 5s – but he is renowned for stopping his opponents defensively and making big plays. Last year, Papanikolaou finished with a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double in that Olympiacos win over Fenerbahce.
Among other stars playing this week who have shined in Game 5s, Monaco icon Mike James has averaged 22.5 points and 7.5 assists in his two previous finales, losing two seasons ago but winning last year. Fenerbahce's Marko Guduric netted 26 points in his only Game 5, a loss last season, while Barcelona's Nico Laprovittola erupting for 26 points in his only Game 5 appearance, a win over FC Bayern Munich in 2022. Alas, Maccabi star Wade Baldwin had 27 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists, good for a 35 PIR, in last year's Game 5 defeat to Monaco, but he will be unavailable for Game 5 this time around against Panathinaikos.
With so much talent on show across the six teams, will we get to see a first road winner in a Game 5 or will the home sides rule once more?