Five teams sit atop two 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season groups with identical records of 6-2 each, but what lies below the surface of the standings?
Stats Review: Team efficiency differentials
Stats
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High-Gravity Matchup
Two teams earned wins in Round 8 that have shaped the top of the standings heading into the new year. In Group A, Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar bested Partizan NIS Belgrade to join them at 6-2 alongside Joventut Badalona. In Group B, Gran Canaria notched a 20-point win over Virtus Segafredo Bologna to determine who between them would move to 6-2 and join Buducnost VOLI Podgorica in the lead.
EuroCup landscape
With five teams sitting atop the standings of their respective groups at 6-2, the EuroCup race remains tight as the mid-point of the regular season approaches in Round 9. Still, there's more to the league landscape than just wins and losses at this stage.
The graph above plots every team in the EuroCup based on their offensive and defensive efficiency through the first eight games relative to the league average.
The numbers match the standings to a degree as the five teams at 6-2 are also the five teams that have performed at an above average on both ends of the court. However, the efficiency differentials of those teams vary wildly at this stage. Among that group, Joventut owns a league-best 0.16 points per possession margin thanks to their outlier-level defense while Gran Canaria has posted a comparably modest 0.04 differential due to some bad bounces on the defensive end. Partizan and Lokomotiv fall between Gran Canaria and Buducnost, who has been the league's most-balanced team so far as the only one ranked among the top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency.
Outside of the top five in the standings, Virtus is the only team with a top five efficiency differential as they continue to battle Lokomotiv for the mantle of the league's top offense this season. Morabanc Andorra and Umana Reyer Venezia sit in very different positions on this graph as they have far different strengths and weaknesses, but they are nonetheless the last two of the eight teams with positive efficiency differentials.
Those two teams are also part of a larger group of 11 that have performed at an above average level on one end of the floor. While only one of those teams, Turk Telekom Ankara, has five wins through Round 8, this group is very compelling given their proximity to some of the top teams in terms of overall performance and the parity they have brought to the first season of the two-group format. That consistent competitiveness has been apparent in Group B, especially, where only two victories separate the team in fourth place from the team in 10th.
Reyer has perhaps the most intriguing profile of any team near the middle of the standing this season. While the Italian club has struggled to achieve balance it is not far off Joventut's staggering pace defensively. Reyer's ability to get a few more three-pointers to fall in 2022 could go a long way for not just their offense, but probably position them to challenge Joventut as the league's most efficient team. The main difference between the two on paper so far has been their transition defense.
Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse has paid the steepest price for Group B's parity as they sit in ninth place at 2-6 despite their efficiency differential falling in step with teams with four victories. With 10 games remaining, there is plenty of time for teams to get into the thick of the playoff picture. It will be interesting to see how much first-half trends carry over to the second in the EuroCup's first long-form season.
Looking Ahead to Round 9
The EuroCup's most efficient offensive team takes on its top defensive team in Round 9 as Lokomotiv visits Joventut to determine which team will take sole possession of first place in Group A. Lokomotiv has not been the season's top shot-making team nor has it committed the lowest volume of turnovers, but their blend of both and an ability to pick teams apart in a variety of ways on the perimeter has the Russian team on pace to become one of the three most efficient half-court offenses this decade. Similarly, Joventut is on pace to become the second-best half-court defense of the last five years, making this game a strength-on-strength battle of historic proportions.