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Playoffs picture: Two high-impact Round 25 clashes

Playoffs picture: Two high-impact Round 25 clashes

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22 February 20234 Mins read

Playoffs picture: Two high-impact Round 25 clashes

After the traditional week-long Turkish Airlines EuroLeague break due to domestic cups action, Round 25 brings two clashes with massive playoffs and home-court implications among the teams lined up between the third and sixth places in the standings.

The first one lands on Thursday, with sixth-place Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade (13-11) hosting fifth-place Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul (14-9) before Friday's meeting between third-place FC Barcelona (16-8) and fourth-place AS Monaco (15-9).

Partizan vs. Fenerbahce

Despite having the worst record of the four, Partizan is the hottest team in the league, having won nine of its last 11 games. It has also won five in a row at home, including the last three at Stark Arena by 18 points or more. During that same stretch, Fenerbahce is 4-7 overall and 1-4 on the road.

The winning run has lifted head coach Zeljko Obradovic's men to a 13-11 record and within just one win of Fenerbahce. If Partizan manages to add to that and beat Fenerbahce in Round 25, the Serbian side would not only re-affirm its place among the playoffs contenders, but also join the other race – the one for playoff home-court advantage.

A Partizan win would mean that these two teams would find themselves even on wins in the standings, with Fenerbahce having a game at hand, but Partizan would be holding a sweep in their season series thanks to its dramatic 72-73 win in Istanbul in Round 15.

On the other hand, a win in one of the toughest road venues on the continent would do wonders for Fenerbahce.

Whenever Fenerbahce played Partizan, Barcelona or Monaco this season, the games ended in drama. Fenerbahce lost by a single point, too, against Barcelona, albeit on the road but owns a sweep against Monaco, with a 93-96 win in the principality and a 98-94 overtime win at home.

Barcelona vs. Monaco

Monaco, meanwhile, has not fared well against these three rivals above and below it in the standings. The Roca Team is 0-4 so far against Partizan, Fenerbahce and Barcelona. That includes a 20-point loss in Belgrade and a 63-69 home defeat against Barcelona.

Barcelona and Monaco have played each other three times, starting with their first-ever meeting last season, and Barcelona has won each one of those games by a margin of between 4 and 6 points. When they played in Round 13, Barcelona led by as many as 18 points late in the third quarter before Monaco trimmed the deficit.

And while another loss would drop Monaco to a combined 0-5 against Barcelona, Fenerbahce and Partizan this season, it would also make Barcelona 4-0 in games against those same opponents. For Barcelona, which finished the last two regular seasons in first place, victory on Friday would give it the inside track to secure playoff home-court advantage once again.