What can we learn about the four remaining contenders for the EuroLeague crown from their statistics? Plenty!
A look at the Final Four teams by the numbers
Stats
5 Mins read
A couple of the teams that are battling for the EuroLeague crown in Berlin have thrived on defense, another two ruled on offense. Not all four teams did well in close games, while several key players from each team hope to bring their playoff form to the Final Four.
Will defenses make an impact (again)?
Last season we witnessed a low-scoring Final Four where no team scored 80 points in any of the four games and in three of those, the losing side was held to 66 points or fewer. This season, Olympiacos arrives in Berlin with the best scoring defense, having held opponents to 74.4 points, and Panathinaikos ranks second in that category with a defense that has allowed 77.8 points per contest.
Olympiacos's strength is holding opponents to 51.3% two-point shooting, a category in which Real Madrid ranked first this season (51.0%). Panathinaikos allowed 34.0% on three-pointers, which was second-best in the league and the same percentage as Real.
These are not the only stellar defensive numbers by the Final Four teams.
Olympiacos leads the league in steals (7.1 spg.) and EuroLeague Best Defender Thomas Walkup leads all players with 60 steals. He is accountable for 21.7% of all steals that Olympiacos recorded this season.
Real Madrid leads the league in blocks (3.6 pbg.) with Vincent Poirier (1.51 bpg.) and Walter Tavares (1.50 bpg.) as the league's top two shot-blockers. Poirier's and Tavares's combined total of 101 blocks entering this Final Four is 13 more than the entire Fenerbahce team, and just 4 blocks fewer than the entire Olympiacos team – and in fewer games, too.
How the teams did in close games
When it comes to games decided by 5 points or fewer in regulation, or games that went into overtime, the Final Four teams had different success during the regular season and the playoffs. Olympiacos did the best in such games and had the most of them with a 13-5 record. Among those, the Reds played four overtime games and were 3-1 in them.
Real Madrid was 10-4 in games decided by 5 or fewer points or overtime. Their games went into extra sessions three times and Los Blancos won two of those, including a four-overtime classic against Anadolu Efes Istanbul in January.
Fenerbahce had the most overtime games with six and won all but one of them, including twice after overtime in its five-game playoff series. But Fenerbahce is only 3-8 in games decided by 5 points or less in regulation.
Meanwhile, Panathinaikos is 4-7 in games decided by 5 or fewer points or overtime and lost each of its three overtime games this season.
Star players who elevated their performances in the playoffs
Some of the EuroLeague's biggest stars stepped up in a major way during the playoffs and are poised to continue the trend in Berlin.
Tavares averaged 9.6 points with 6.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in the regular season, but had 10.0 points, 9.7 rebounds and a playoff single-series record 2.7 blocks in the playoffs. Nick Calathes improved his 6.5 points and 0.7 three-pointers made per game on 35.6% shooting to 11.8 points and 1.8 triples per game on 40.0% shooting. Kostas Sloukas, who had 12.1 points for Panathinaikos during the regular season, improved that to 15.2 in the playoffs.
Kendrick Nunn had 15.4 points, making 1.8 threes on 38.5% accuracy before the playoffs. Then his numbers jumped to 19.2 points and 3.2 triples made on 51.6% shooting in the series against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. The numbers skyrocketed to 26.0 points, 4.7 triples made on 56.0% shooting in the final three games of the series.
Olympiacos's Shaquielle McKissic's contribution improved across the board. After playing 14:30 per game and posting 5.9 points on 29.6% three-point shooting with 1.1 rebounds and just 0.8 assists and 0.7 steals in the regular season, McKissic shined with 12.0 points on 35.3% shooting, 3.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.6 steals in the playoffs. Filip Petrusev went from 5.5 points on 48.2% two-point shooting and 3.2 rebounds, to 10.2 points on 58.1% shooting and 4.4 rebounds in a series against FC Barcelona.
Meanwhile, their teammate Nikola Milutinov, who started the playoffs after recovering from injury, posted 9.0 points on 77.8% shooting and 10.5 rebounds in the last two games of the playoffs, improving on 8.5 points, 61.0% shooting and 5.6 rebounds in 21 regular-season appearances.
Fener's offense before and after Saras
Fenerbahce enters the Final Four having allowed 34.5% shooting on three-pointers, and 54.1% on twos, which ranks fifth and eighth respectively, but the asset that got the team this far has not been its defense, rather the team's offense, especially since Coach Saras Jasikevicius took over mid-December.
Before the coaching change, in 13 games under Coach Dimitris Itoudis, the team averaged 80.8 points. Over the 26 games since then, that average went up to 86.8 points per game.
The most significant change has been Fenerbahce's tendency to shoot three-pointers and it did so more successfully than any other team in the league.
Under Itoudis, Fenerbahce finished five of 13 games making less than 10 triples and averaged 10.2 triples per game. With Jasikevicius, that number went up to 12.2, finishing only six of 26 games with fewer than 10 made three-pointers.
For the entire season, the team average is an all-time best 11.5 threes, which is nearly 0.4 triples per game more than the previous single-season record. Fenerbahce attempts 29.1 threes per game, third-most ever, and enters the Final Four shooting a league-best 39.5% from downtown this season.