Efes avoided another fourth-quarter collapse thanks to Will Clyburn
When Zalgiris Kaunas pulled to within 2 points of Anadolu Efes Istanbul, 72-70, at Sinan Erdem Sports Hall on Tuesday evening, the home crowd's heartbeats must have been racing. Efes had let four fourth-quarter leads slip in recent weeks, including three times in its last four games, but this time, Will Clyburn ensured that his team got over the line.
Efes went on to win Wednesday night's game 80-70, but against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in Round 16, Valencia Basket in Round 18, FC Bayern Munich in Round 20 and Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in Round 21, the Turkish team had led heading into the final quarter of play. It lost all four of those games.
As a result of those defeats, Efes found itself with a 10-11 record and was in 11th place in the standings. Given the expectations that everyone had for Efes heading into this campaign, having become back-to-back champions and signed Clyburn in the offseason, it was starting to look like it might be a season to forget. After all, Efes has hopes of securing a three-peat, but before it can even dream of that, it needs to be in the playoffs.
That is why Wednesday's victory against Zalgiris was so important. By improving to 11-11 with the win, and jumping up to ninth in the standings in the process, Efes is now just one game back of Valencia in eighth, the final playoff spot. During his post-game interview, Efes head coach Ergin Ataman discussed why it was so crucial that his side won its first game in this double-round week.
"Now, it's very important for us [that we won], because of course our goal is to reach a better position in the standings," said Coach Ataman. "Still, we are out of the playoffs, but we will see [what happens in the future]. We found the victory against a very important team, and it's two victories [for us] against them. Maybe that will be important for us in the final standings."
But, it could have been a very different story if Clyburn wasn't on the floor. Zalgiris had gone on a 9-0 run to reduce Efes's advantage to 72-70 entering the last 1:24 of the game, yet Shane Larkin responded with a layup to create a bit of daylight, 74-70. Then, Clyburn came to the fore.
As Kevarrius Hayes looked to find Edgaras Ulanovas with 53.0 seconds remaining, Clyburn read the pass and made the steal. From there, he took the ball up the court before dunking on Hayes and causing the roof to come off Sinan Erdem Sports Hall, 76-70. Everything pointed towards the first-year Efes forward being the hero, but there was still 48.5 seconds left on the clock; Zalgiris still had time to turn the game around.
Unsurprisingly, Zalgiris looked to get a quick basket, but Ignas Brazdeikis's floater in the lane came back out off the rim. Brazdeikis and Arnas Butkevicius tried to get the rebound, but Clyburn jumped above everyone to pull the ball out of the sky. He then dribbled to his right, looked up the court and found an open Rodrigue Beaubois, who scored a reverse layup, 78-70.
There were 35 seconds left, but Efes now had an 8-point advantage. Nevertheless, as Brazdeikis drove towards the rim with 26.2 on the clock, Clyburn put his body on the line to alter the Zalgiris guard's shooting motion, which allowed Bryant Dunston to record his third block of the night. The loose ball fell into the hands of Larkin, who found Beaubois for another layup, this time in the open floor.
That basket was the icing on the cake for Efes, who won 80-70, but the victory wouldn’t have been possible without the play of Clyburn, who finished the night with 19 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal. Efes will now look to follow up this triumph with another win, this time on the road against the co-leader in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings, Olympiacos Piraeus, on Friday evening (20:00 CET).