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 can lock up the top spot
Real Madrid (24-6) has already clinched, at a minimum, home-court advantage for the playoffs and now Los Blancos can make the remainder of their regular-season schedule academic with a victory in Belgrade. Coach Chus Mateo’s men have a four-win lead over archrival FC Barcelona (20-10) in second place and with a victory at Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade (14-16) on Thursday night Real will lock up the top spot for the 2023-24 regular season.
Even if Real loses, hope is not lost for a celebration this week. If Barcelona drops its game at Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens (18-11) on Friday, that would also be enough for the reigning EuroLeague champs to clinch first place.
The importance of finishing first cannot be overstated. No team that finished first at the end of the current full-season round-robin format has failed to win its playoff series and reach the Final Four.
Barcelona eyeing a playoff party
FC Barcelona can already start to envision an asterisk next to its name in the standings as a playoff qualifier. Coach Roger Grimau’s side can get there this week, though it does not all depend on itself.
Barcelona will clinch a top-six finish with a win at Panathinaikos, but only if either Olympiacos Piraeus (18-12) or Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv (17-13) win its game. The Reds host LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (7-23) on Thursday and Maccabi visits FC Bayern Munich (13-16) on Friday.
Third-place Panathinaikos, fourth-place Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and fifth-place AS Monaco – all with 19-11 records – cannot qualify for the playoffs this week, though, of course, every win carries them closer.
Virtus, Maccabi closing in on Play-In Showdown berths
Both Virtus Segafredo Bologna (17-13) and Maccabi can finish the week having secured a spot among the top 10 in the regular-season standings and thus, at a minimum, a place in the inaugural Play-In Showdown. Virtus is through to the play-in if it beats Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade (10-20) on Friday. It can also qualify if it loses as long as Valencia Basket (14-16), EA7 Emporio Armani Milan (13-17), Anadolu Efes Istanbul (13-17) and Bayern (13-17) all lose.
Maccabi (17-13) clinches a ticket to the Play-In Showdown if it wins, or if Valencia, Partizan, Milan, and Efes all lose.