Not much is now left in the originally scheduled best-of-five playoff series of the Turkish Airlines Euro-League Basketball. True to their form this season, Fenerbahce Istanbul defeated 2015 champions Real Madrid 3-0 on Tuesday and booked their place for Berlin’s Final Four. On Monday, CSKA Moscow had already secured their Final Four berth with a road victory over Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade. The third team completing the 3-0 playoff sweep on Tuesday was Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz, who also scored a road victory over six time champions Panathinaikos Athens. The fourth playoff series is yet to be decided but FC Barcelona Lassa have taken a 2-1 lead over Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar after three games. They play their next game on Thursday and if necessary again on April 26. This year’s competition is now down to the last five teams, three of which will certainly go to Berlin’s Alexanderplatz for European basketball’s most eagerly awaited annual event beginning on May 13, 2016.
CSKA Moscow were the first to qualify for Final Four on Monday, when they defeated Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade 78-71 at the Kombank Arena in Belgrade. CSKA thus made the Final Four for the fifth consecutive year. In the last 14 years, CSKA Moscow have missed the Final Four just once in 2011, when they were absent at Barcelona. Zvezda fought hard and didn’t allow CSKA to have a free reign throughout the match. The hosts trailed by a 12-point margin in fourth quarter but rallied to come within a solitary point with under 4 minutes remaining. However, CSKA stars Nikita Kurbanov, Cory Higgins and Nando De Colo scored their threes to ice the game. De Colo top-scored with 20 points, while Milos Teodosic added 12 more with 7 assists. For Zvezda, Quincy Miller scored 15. It was the first time that Zvezda had progressed to the playoff stage in Euro-League basketball.
The next team to join CSKA in Final Four was Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz, who defeated six time champions Panathinaikos Athens 84-75 at Athens’ Olympic Sports Center. It was Laboral’s first Final Four after a gap of 8 years. The match remained a back-and-forth battle until the last 8 minutes, when Laboral scored from 7 out of 8 three-pointers. Top scorer Darius Adam produced 14 of his 24 points in the last quarter to help Laboral punch the Berlin ticket. Mike James also added 20 points. This was the fourth straight season that Panathinaikos have failed to enter the Final Four. The Greek team had an added disappointment since the legendary Dimitris Diamantidis will now retire without playing another Euro-league game.
