Check out some bold predictions from EuroLeague.net staff members for Round 34, the last of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season.
Bold predictions for Round 34
Straipsnis
5 Minutė skaityti
Fenerbahce upsets Olympiacos, finishes fifth
by Javier Gancedo
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul lost against Anadolu Efes Istanbul twice last week, both in the EuroLeague and in their domestic competition. Head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius's team cannot afford another loss right before the playoffs, and I predict that Fenerbahce will bounce back at Peace and Friendship Stadium. Nigel Hayes-Davis should lead his team again. Even though Fenerbahce is without big man Johnathan Motley and his fellow center Sertac Sanli is questionable, Georgios Papagiannis has been solid lately and will be inspired, as a former Panathinaikos player, to challenge Moustapha Fall. Tyler Dorsey should be extra motivated against Olympiacos, his former team, and Scottie Wilbekin has been hot lately, so the scoring punch can come from different directions. Fenerbahce finishes sixth and sends the Reds to the sixth place.
Barcelona-Olympiacos rivalry will be rekindled in the playoffs
by Frankie Sachs
Okay, I am taking my shot here. For this to happen, I am predicting that FC Barcelona will finish either third or fourth and Olympiacos Piraeus, correspondingly, will be fifth or sixth. My bet is that both Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens and AS Monaco take care of business on Thursday, ensuring that Barcelona will be fourth before it even takes the floor on Friday at LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. And then, the Reds claim fifth place by holding off Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. The result? That the 1997 and 2010 championship games will be replayed as part of what should be an exciting playoff series. The last time Barca and Olympiacos clashed in the playoffs, the Reds won 3-1 in 2015.
Virtus to lock up the eighth seed
by Geoff Gillingham
Get ready for a dramatic end to the regular season, with Virtus Segafredo Bologna hosting Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in one of the games of the round. The winner will secure the eighth seed, thus giving it two shots in the Play-In Showdown, while the loser will finish ninth or 10th depending on what happens elsewhere. I think Virtus's passionate fans will certainly play their part in swinging this game, while the Italian side's quality veterans – Toko Shengelia, Marco Belinelli and Daniel Hackett, to name just three – will make sure there's no slip-up. Virtus has gone 2-8 over its last 10 games, but with so much at stake, I believe it will get back on track just in time.
Baskonia will nail down all-important eighth place
by Frank Lawlor
Some of us remember the first modern EuroLeague season and the only one to end in a best-of-five final series. Dusko Ivanovic's Tau Ceramica was an underdog against star-packed Kinder Bologna featuring Manu Ginobili, but Tau went into Palamalguti arena in Bologna and stole Game 1. Tau lost Game 5 and that first title in Bologna, but four years later they were back in Italy to start the playoffs and shocked Ettore Messina's Benetton Treviso with a 39-point Game 1 road win. Friday's game with Virtus is arguably the biggest of Round 34, the difference between two guaranteed Play-In Showdown games, with one at home if needed, versus only one guaranteed, likely on the road, and even if that is a victory, another test three nights later away. It may have been a long time ago, but when Baskonia and Dusko play a crucial road game in Italy, I am not betting against them.
ASVEL goes out with pride in regular-season finale
by Igor Petrinovic
ASVEL did not have the season it had hoped for, with only eight wins amid two coaching changes. However, even though long-eliminated from postseason contention, ASVEL never stopped competing and played the role of a spoiler against Milan, Efes and Valencia, the latter one in a resounding 29-point fashion last week. I think Nando De Colo, Joffrey Lauvergne & co. are not done, leaving the best for last, and giving their fans at LDLC Arena something else to cheer about this Friday. FC Barcelona has already secured home-court advantage in the playoffs and will be coming off two emotionally-charged home wins, first over Maccabi, then a domestic league El Clásico success against Real Madrid. Not to mention that Roger Grimau's men might already be locked into fourth spot by the time of Friday's tip off in the last game of the regular season. I believe ASVEL will go out with a bang and beat Barcelona on its home floor for only the second time this century.