With the regular season hurtling towards a finish, teams are aiming to take part in the postseason, one way or another. Here are the teams with possibilities to reach some postseason goal this week.
Real zeroes in on home-court advantage
The only team qualified so far to the top six, and therefore the best-of-five playoffs, is league leader Real Madrid. The defending champs can add to that accomplishment this week by guaranteeing their spot in the top four, which comes with home-court advantage in the playoffs.
To assure at least two home games in the playoffs, Real (23-6) needs only to win on the road on Tuesday against basement-dweller ALBA Berlin (5-24).
Even without winning, Real can reach its goal on Wednesday if Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul (18-11) loses at home to FC Barcelona (20-9) or Panathinaikos Aktor Athens (18-11) falls on the road at Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade (10-19).
If home-court advantage historically means a 75% chance of reaching the Final Four, then Real has proven even better with it plays Game 1 at home. Real made the playoffs the last nine seasons consecutively and broke through to the Final Four seven times, including all six when it held home-court advantage.
Two teams can guarantee at least the Play-In Showdown
No other teams can join Real in the playoffs in Round 30 due to the potential tiebreaks down the road. But two more teams can clinch top-10 finishes, and therefore guarantee themselves at least one postseason game, something Real, FC Barcelona, AS Monaco, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and Olympiacos Piraeus have done so far.
Virtus Segafredo Bologna (17-12) has first crack at that opportunity on Tuesday if it can win on the road at Zalgiris Kaunas (11-18). Should Virtus not succeed, it may still grab a Play-In Showdown spot if Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade (13-16), who hosts Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz (16-13) on Tuesday, and Valencia Basket (13-16), who welcomes FC Bayern Munich (13-16) on Wednesday, both lose those home games.
Panathinaikos may not have to wait to beat Zvezda on Wednesday to reach the Play-In Showdown, because that's just one of four results that can put the Greens in the postseason. The first is if Olympiacos Piraeus (18-11) wins on the road at Anadolu Efes Istanbul (12-17) in Tuesday's first game. Later that night, a Partizan loss to Baskonia would suffice for the Greens to advance. Its own win on Zvezda’s court is the third go-through possibility for Panathinaikos. And if none of the previous three chances work, Bayern losing to Valencia in the last game of Round 30 would also put the Panathinaikos in the Play-In Showdown, at least.