While Fenerbahce beat Zvezda by 14 at home in Round 7, the hosts are not the same team they were back in early November. Zvezda will enter the game having won four straight, including their Round 33 contest against top-seeded Olympiacos Piraeus. Scoring a stellar 1.01 points per possession since the addition of Facundo Campazzo – up from only 0.95 points per possession prior to that point – Zvezda has found a level of consistency on the perimeter that they had lacked at times before. While things did not break their way in the standings, they have nonetheless hit their stride late in the season.
Zvezda has looked like one of the EuroLeague's top ball-screen offenses recently and they'll provide a major road test for Fenerbahce in that regard as the visitors ranked in the middle of the pack guarding pick-and-rolls this season.
Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz
Baskonia sits in eighth place and owns several valuable tiebreakers, but as it stands even with Zalgiris Kaunas on 18 wins, the Spanish club still may need a victory to keep the final spot in the playoff field. Securing that victory in Peace and Friendship Stadium figures to be easier said than done as Olympiacos has not lost a home game since the calendar flipped to 2023.
While the Reds are not as scorching hot as they were when they bulldozed their way to the top of the standings a couple months ago, they are nonetheless the only team to still rank among the top three in both offensive and defensive efficiency and remain the class of the league. While they only have seeding to play for, they still figure to come out motivated against Baskonia.
