Tuesday saw the team grab an important win over Olympiacos
Efes won’t go down without a fight in play-in battle
With just four games remaining in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season, time is starting to run out for teams looking to make up ground in the push to make the postseason. That is particularly true for Anadolu Efes Istanbul.
After Round 24, Efes found itself with a 9-15 record and the possibility of making the EuroLeague Playoffs a long way away. Despite boasting a roster that includes the likes of Shane Larkin, Will Clyburn and Darius Thompson, the Turkish side, then led by Erdem Can, had failed to live up to the excitement that surrounded the team during last year’s offseason.
Seeking a miracle
The Efes management decided that enough was enough and parted ways with Coach Can with immediate effect. Rumors swirled about who his replacement would be, but in the end, they chose a man who has seen it all at Efes over the last 14 years: Tomislav Mijatovic, the former assistant to Dusan Ivkovic (2014-16), Ahmet Caki (2016), Velimir Perasovic (2016-17), Ergin Ataman (2017-23) and Can (2023-24).
Now, Coach Mijatovic is trying to pull off a miracle – and he’s making good progress so far. Since his appointment, Efes has gone 4-2, including a perfect 4-0 at Sinan Erdem Sports Hall. Of those four home victories, two came against teams in the play-in race – EA7 Emporio Armani Milan and FC Bayern Munich – one was against a Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv side currently in seventh, the first of four play-in spots, and the other, which arrived on Tuesday night, was against an Olympiacos Piraeus team occupying sixth position, the final place that guarantees direct access to the playoffs. In short, it has been impressive.
Admittedly, there was a head-scratching 84-80 defeat to LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in Round 29, while the first loss of the Mijatovic era at Efes occurred, also on the road, at Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade in Round 27. Nonetheless, there have been signs that Efes is trending in the right direction, which should make for a fascinating end to the regular season.
Efes remains on the outside looking in regarding the play-in race, sitting in 13th, one game back of Partizan in 10th, but Valencia Basket and Bayern – in 11th and 12th, respectively – face each other on Wednesday night. Given that Efes holds the tiebreaker over Bayern and not Valencia, a victory for Pablo Laso’s side would be big for Coach Mijatovic and his charges heading into Thursday night’s game at home to ALBA.
That ALBA clash is Efes’s penultimate fixture at Sinan Erdem Sports Hall this year, and it is the final game before the Turkish side has back-to-back road contests at Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. Therefore, anything other than a win would all but end the club’s hopes of making it to the postseason.
An important win over Olympiacos
The good news is that Efes has been particularly impressive in its own gym all season long, boasting an 11-4 record at home, and it will be keen to replicate the level of performance it displayed during its Round 30 win against Olympiacos, a team that had won six straight before Tuesday night.
“The players and the fans together, the synergy, they did an amazing job. Hat’s off to them, big thanks to them,” commented Coach Mijatovic after the victory against Olympiacos. We fought and we played against a great team. We got one important victory, which we’re going to [celebrate] tonight, and tomorrow we’re going to start preparing for our next opponent, ALBA, on Thursday.
“Our team is a united team; these guys keep fighting. Even when we did something maybe unexpected, we kept on grinding. Even in the games where we maybe didn’t play so well, we kept on grinding. I’m hoping that these guys have enough power – and I know they have enough heart – to keep doing this game in, game out.”
Coach Mijatovic was able to lean on a number of players in the Olympiacos triumph, with usual suspects Larkin and Clyburn getting support from Derek Willis, Rodrigue Beaubois and Elijah Bryant. Veteran Tibor Pleiss got the party started with 3 straight threes to put Efes 9-0 up – it never trailed the rest of the way.
Efes certainly knows the task it has on its hands, but it has the talent and the desire to end the season on a high. Perhaps it will end up being too little, too late, but without trying, it’s impossible to know.
“When we play at home, we have the fans with us and we can really feel it from them,” noted Beaubois following the Olympiacos win. “Hopefully we can do the same thing in two days [against ALBA] because it’s going to be a really important game. We need to stay together and believe. The most important thing is to believe.”
That’s certainly the word Coach Mijatovic and all Efes fans will be preaching right now: belief.