<incrowd-live-blog id="642edb66b22587e23232070c" client-id="EUROLEAGUE" server="standard"></incrowd-live-blog><script src="https://live-blog.incrowdsports.com/index.js"></script>



<script>
(function (document) {
  setTimeout(() => {
    const script = document.createElement('script');
    script.async = true;
    script.defer = true;
    script.src = 'https://live-blog.incrowdsports.com/index.js';
    document.body.appendChild(script);
  }, 1000);
})(document);
</script>

Thursday Blog: Zalgiris, Baskonia win; Maccabi qualifies; Fenerbahce knocks out Efes

Zalgiris Kaunas v Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv (2023-04-06T17:00:00.000Z)

Real Madrid v FC Bayern Munich (2023-04-06T18:45:00.000Z)

Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade v Olympiacos Piraeus (2023-04-06T17:00:00.000Z)

Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul v Anadolu Efes Istanbul (2023-04-06T17:45:00.000Z)

Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz v LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (2023-04-06T19:00:00.000Z)

Valencia Basket v Virtus Segafredo Bologna (2023-04-06T18:30:00.000Z)

Real Madrid kept its hat in the ring for the best record in the regular season with a 79-67 victory over FC Bayern Munich on Thursday night in the Spanish capital.

Real Madrid rolls past Bayern, 79-67

Real Madrid kept its hat in the ring for the best record in the regular season with a 79-67 victory over FC Bayern Munich on Thursday night in the Spanish capital. Real never trailed after the opening minutes in improving to 23-10 on the season, which matched Olympiacos Piraeus for the top record with one round remaining on the schedule. Mario Hezonja went for 20 points on 5-of-10 three-point shooting to pace *Los Blancos*. Dzanan Musa added 11 points and Guerschon Yabusele contributed 10 points.

Bayern fell to 11-22 with the loss. Andreas Obst tied his career high with 7 three-pointers en route to 21 points to lead Bayern and Zylan Cheatham posted 20 points and 8 boards in just his fifth EuroLeague game.

Game Videos

Threes by Obst and Nick Weiler-Babb helped Bayern to an early lead, but Musa scored 5 points to ignite a 12-3 run that gave Real the lead for good. It was 19-13 after 10 minutes and Anthony Randolph sank a triple to start the second quarter. Cheatham was a force inside for Bayern and a barrage of threes kept the visitors close, with a buzzer-beater from Obst making it 40-36 at the break.

Real picked things up on defense early in the second half and  Yabusele's first three made it a double-digit game, 49-38, midway through the third quarter. Walter Tavares and Hezonja kept the hosts cruising and Cheatham could only make it 56-44 through the end of the third quarter. A Petr Cornelie three followed by a Hezonja free throw got the lead as high as 16 for Real in the fourth. Bayern continued to battle, but the outcome was never in doubt after that.

Game News

Zalgiris used heart to overcome shooting woes

Zalgiris Kaunas has shot a middle-of-the-pack 36.8% from long range in its home games this season, but in its final regular season home game, its shots were falling off the mark.

Zalgiris players made just 5 triples on 23 attempts, for just 21.7%, its fourth-worst in 33 games this season. No player made more than 1 three-point shot, with Arnas Butkevicius going 0-for-6, Ignas Brazdeikis 0-for-4, and Isaiah Taylor 1-for-4 from long distance.

Despite those struggles, however, Zalgiris pulled out a 68-67 win over Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, ending the visitors' six-game winning streak.

"Zalgiris won with a lot of heart," Maccabi head coach Oded Kattash said after the loss.

Energy, hustle and defense is the only way to victory when the percentages are that bad and when your opponent has 9 more assists.

It has brought Zalgiris closer to the promise land, but they still do not hold their playoff destiny in their own hands.

"We are looking for this last game, and don’t \[want to\] think too much. Just go and play hard, like we always do. Give our best and hope we are going to make the playoffs," Butkevicius said after a big win.

Mario Hezonja, Real: 'We played a little bit sloppy'

### Real Madrid head coach Chus Mateo:

"We were able to play much better defense in the second half. We were able to make some blocks and we boxed out much better, they started to miss some threes that in the beginning were a problem for us. And it was not probably the best game that we had, but we won and it’s very important for us to be among the top three \[teams\]."

### FC Bayern Munich head coach Andrea Trinchieri:

"First of all, I wish all the best to Real in the playoffs. Congrats for the win. They were better. We competed. As soon as our three-point shooting went down, we had problems. I believe we shot only 2 or 4 free throws in the whole game. One thing was we wanted to spread the court and I think maybe to play this game you need to go to the line a little bit more, beating \[defenders\] one on one. But we played, we played.

"I believe the key was the third quarter when we scored only 8 points. We were able to keep Real to only 16, but we missed open shots. But my team competed. We grabbed more rebounds. We protected pretty well the paint. And then Mario \[Hezonja\] scored 4 threes from downtown and this made the court too big for us."

### Real Madrid forward Mario Hezonja:

"We entered the game a little bit sleepy. We played also a little bit sloppy. They are a great offensive rebounding team. They shoot a lot of threes so we were off to a slow start. But then later we woke up, we started to play tougher defense, we were sharing the ball offensively and we just separated."

Nigel Hayes-Davis, Fenerbahce: 'The atmosphere was electric'

### Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul head coach Dimitris Itoudis:

"It’s on the players. I want to congratulate the squad, each and every one of the players, even those who didn’t play today. They make an effort in practice, behind closed doors when no one can see. We kept believing. We fell many times but we fell forward and we learned from all those things. We played against a very talented team, the defending champions. It’s a huge day for Fenerbahce as we beat our big rivals and we also enjoyed victories in soccer and volleyball today. We had good control in offense today while defensively we kept it in the balance. A big thanks to the fans as they kept pushing the players. 

"I have to apologize to \[Pierre and Hayes-Davis\] for not taking them out, but they mean a lot to our system. I hate when players are injured, I like having a headache whom to select when everyone is healthy. We needed both of them because of their size, intelligence and their multiple ways of attacking in offense. Obviously, I don’t want to keep players on the court for 40 minutes, but this wasn’t a typical regular season game. There was a lot on the table."

### Anadolu Efes Istanbul head coach Ergin Ataman:

"Congratulations to Fenerbahce, tonight they played a great game, especially Pierre and Hayes-Davis. Offensively they played excellent. We also played well until the last 5 minutes, when we made some crucial defensive mistakes. We basically lost our chance to make the postseason not tonight, but in previous games and especially in those which we lost at home against teams that will now also be out of the playoffs. We had a lot of problems during the season, but this is sport and this is basketball. For 4 years we made history in the EuroLeague and even if we had won tonight we’d still have had only a slim chance of making the playoffs. My players fought, they hustled but Fenerbahce played a great game and I hope they will find a way into the playoffs."

### Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul forward Nigel Hayes-Davis:

“It was a do-or-die game for us. The team trusted me and the coach trusted me to play the full 40 minutes and help the team win. (Asked if he realized he posted a career-high of 26 points): “No, but I talked to my kittens this morning and I had a good conversation with them. They said 'do your best Nigel' and I meowed back and I said I will, so a shoutout to my kittens, the team and the fans, they were great today. 

"I feel great. Dyshawn \[Pierre\] played for 40 minutes too, it was great and we were feeding off the energy. The atmosphere was electric and I could have gone on for another 20 minutes if I needed to."

 

### Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul forward Dyshawn Pierre:

“It’s really sweet, we knew what this meant with only a couple of games left in the \[regular\] season. We knew what this meant to the fans so we are happy to have given them and the organization this win and move forward... I think any player would take playing for 40 minutes if told to by the coach and I was happy to contribute."

 

Zalgiris Kaunas went into halftime of its final regular season home game, a must-win clash against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, down 42-45. The team had just allowed 28 second-quarter points, with Maccabi missing just 3 field goals the entire quarter, shooting 5-for-6 on two-pointer and 6-for-8 from long range. "Thank God we changed our defense," Zalgiris Kaunas head coach Kazys Maksvytis said after seeing his team hold onto a thrilling 68-67 win.

 Zalgiris rode second-half defense to victory 

Zalgiris Kaunas went into halftime of its final regular season home game, a must-win clash against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, down 42-45. The team had just allowed 28 second-quarter points, with Maccabi missing just 3 field goals the entire quarter, shooting 5-for-6 on two-pointer and 6-for-8 from long range.

"Thank God we changed our defense," Zalgiris Kaunas head coach Kazys Maksvytis said after seeing his team hold onto a thrilling 68-67 win. "We started to mix our defense: one time we went switch defense, one time we went man-to-man."

In the third quarter Zalgiris allowed just 7 points, and 15 more in the fourth, which combined was still 6 fewer than in the second quarter alone.

Zalgiris forced Maccabi into 6-for-16 shooting on two-pointers and just 2-for-14 from long range in the second half. Equally important, Maccabi's 14 first-half assists were cut down in more than half, with just 6 in the second half.

"Everybody understood that we needed to play better defense \[in the second half\] and needed to fight for every ball, and we did that," said Rolands Smits, who was Zalgiris's leading scorer with 13 points.

A win came by the slimmest of margins, but enough for Zalgiris live to see another day in the playoff race.

Zalgiris rode second-half defense to victory

A highly-entertaining clash in which neither team held a lead higher than 7 points saw Zalgiris Kaunas hold off Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 68-67 on Thursday. Zalgiris survived to see another day in a playoffs race, improving to 18-15, while Maccabi dropped to 19-14 but qualified for the playoffs thanks to losing by a margin of just 1 point. Rolands Smits had 13 points and Isaiah Taylor scored 12 in victory. Maccabi had five double-digit scorers, with Baldwin and Jarell Martin scoring 12 apiece. Baldwin also had 10 assists. Lorenzo Brown and Josh Nebo each scored 11, and Jake Cohen scored 10 points for Maccabi

 Zalgiris survives, edges playoff-bound Maccabi 

A highly-entertaining clash in which neither team held a lead higher than 7 points saw Zalgiris Kaunas hold off Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 68-67 on Thursday night. Zalgiris survived to see another day in a playoffs race, improving to 18-15, while Maccabi dropped to 19-14 but qualified for the playoffs thanks to losing by a margin of just 1 point. The game came down to the final 21 seconds and Maccabi's possession. Wade Baldwin took the ball into his hands, ran out the clock then attempted a tough short jumper over stretched hands of Kevarrius Hayes, but only hit the back rim, sending a sold-out Zalgirio Arena into frenzy.

Rolands Smits had 13 points and Isaiah Taylor scored 12 in victory. Maccabi had five double-digit scorers, with Baldwin and Jarell Martin scoring 12 apiece. Baldwin also had 10 assists. Lorenzo Brown and Josh Nebo each scored 11, and Jake Cohen scored 10 points for Maccabi, which qualified for the playoffs because it cannot lose any possible remaining tiebreaker. 

The one tiebreaker that could have potentially eliminated Maccabi at the end of the regular season was a three-way tie with Baskonia and Zalgiris for seventh, eighth and ninth place. With all three teams splitting home wins, Maccabi is -15 head-to-head against Baskonia, and now is even in head-to-head against Zalgiris after each team won by a 1-point margin on home floor. But since Zalgiris is -16 in head-to-head games against Baskonia, in such three-way tie, Baskonia would be seventh, Maccabi eighth and Zalgiris ninth. Thanks to Partizan sweeping Zalgiris and Baskonia sweeping Fenerbahce, Maccabi cannot be worse than eighth anymore, therefore, it qualifies for the playoffs for the second straight season.

The teams traded blows from the start. Nebo scored 6 quick points as the visitors went up 6-8, and Martin followed with his first triple, but a fastbreak dunk from Smits and a three-pointer from Lukas Lekavicius put the hosts up 17-13. Maccabi scored the last 4 points of the first quarter to tie things ups, then Darrun Hilliard and Martin hit back-to-back threes early in the second to open a 20-23 lead. A three-point play from Martin and a triple from Brown put Maccabi further ahead, 22-29, but Tomas Dimsa answered with a three-pointer to spark a 7-0 Zalgiris run that tied the game once again. Mre Maccabi three-pointers – one apiece from Martin, Brown and Jake Cohen  – restored the visitors' lead at 42-45 going into halftime.

An offensive affair turned into a defensive battle in the third quarter. Smits scored twice inside to give the hosts a 48-45 edge. Brown nailed transition triple, but Zalgiris held the visitors to just 7 third-quarter points and took a 56-52 advantage into the final frame. Cohen's three-point play helped tie it at 61-61, but Butkevicius and Taylor restored the hosts lead, 65-61, midway through the fourth. Zalgiris was then left without a single basket for more than 4 minutes, during which Nebo and Baldwin put the visitors in front, 65-67. Edgaras Ulanovas tied it with 1:38 to go and there were no more  scores other than Taylor splitting free throws with 21 seconds to go, setting up the final Maccabi possession.

Zalgiris survives, edges playoff-bound Maccabi

Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade made it four straight wins by downing league leader Olympiacos Piraeus, 87-79, completing the double over the Reds. Zvezda improves to 16-17 while Olympiacos is now 23-10 and must win next week to ensure finishing first. Facundo Campazzo combined 20 points, 8 assists and 5 steals, while John Holland netted 13 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter. 

 Zvezda downs Olympiacos again, 87-79 

Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade made it four straight wins by downing league leader Olympiacos Piraeus, 87-79, completing the double over the Reds. Zvezda improves to 16-17 while Olympiacos is now 23-10 and must win next week to ensure finishing first.

Olympiacos raced into an early double-digit lead but Zvezda fought back and went ahead by 7 in the third quarter. The hosts continued to dominate and fully deserved the win. Facundo Campazzo combined 20 points, 8 assists and 5 steals, while John Holland netted 13 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter. Luca Vildoza and Fiip Petrusev both scored 12. Sasha Vezenkov (16 points) and Thomas Walkup (15) paced Olympiacos. 

A pair of Walkup triples and two scores from Vezenkov gave Olympiacos the early edge, 8-15, but Petrusev’s buzzer-beater capped a 7-0 run at the end of the first, 26-30. Campazzo scored 6 fast points to keep the host close, 33-36. Zvezda took its first lead, 41-39, after 6 points from Luka Mitrovic, but Shaquielle McKissic beat the buzzer for a 45-47 interval lead. Three-pointers from Vildoza and Campazzo bookended a 9-0 run to send Zvezda ahead, 54-47, as Olympiacos scored just 1 point in 5 minutes. Kostas Sloukas netted twice but Petrusev scored 5 points to keep Zvezda ahead, 65-59, after three quarters. Vezenkov’s triple opened the final period, but Holland took over with 13 points in 5 minutes for an 80-71 lead. A three-pointer from Sloukas gave Olympiacos hope, but Petrusev’s dunk made sure of the win.

 

Zvezda downs Olympiacos again, 87-79

 Dusko Ivanovic, Zvezda: 'We play every game to win' 

### Dusko Ivanovic , Zvezda head coach

"We won't play in the playoffs, but we have a big drive and we have to continue our way. It's normal for us to play this way."

"Except the first 10 minutes, when we really didn't play how we had to play, for 30 minutes we played with big energy, with good defense. A great game. We play every game to win."

### Georgios Bartzokas, Olympiacos head coach

"I would like to congratulate Zvezda for their motivation, their desire to play, their physicality and the energy they gave to win. I'm trying to convince my players that right now everybody has extra motivation us, even though Zvezda doesn't have any chance of qualifying for the playoffs. Nobody is giving anything to us for free. We need to believe inside the court and today we didn't. We had a lot of players out of the feeling of the game, a lot of players who had a bad night. I'm not talking about shooting, but their general feeling of the game, what they should do to fulfil their role to win the game. We have one more chance to end up this season finishing first by beating Baskonia in our home court, which would be an amazing accomplishment for our team. I'm sure this game will help us be in the right feeling, to know what is important now in basketball and what we should have as a team to finish the season as well as we can. The atmosphere was amazing – very supportive of the home team, but also very respectful for us. That is something I appreciate a lot."

### Facundo Campazzo, Zvezda guard

"I think we were aggressive on defense. That made us play very smart on offense. We didn't worry about who was going to shoot, we shared the ball and were smart. And on defense we played as a team, very smart, focused, a planned game in the second half. I think that was the difference. We've got to think about what is next. We can finish ninth in the EuroLeague so we've got to fight for that."

### John Holland, Zvezda forward

"That's life – that's the way the game goes, that's the way that life goes. One day your girl leaves you, and the next day you come out and hit shots. So the trick is to keep the same mindset no matter what's going on, and just to stay locked in. I think we did a good job as a team, being locked in. Even though we didn't have a chance for playoffs, we still came out, we still competed. I think we did a good job and that's what we need to keep going. It's nice, that's how it goes. Fortunately tonight was my night, but we've got a great team. Every night someone different steps up. It's a joy, it was fun to go out there and hoop. But we've gotta do it again next game and keep it going!"