All season has come to this: the Euroleague Final four, in Vitoria-Gasteiz. We are about to review the first Euroleague Semi-final between two teams from Istanbul: Anadolu Efes and Fenerbahce.

 

Fenerbahce Istanbul

Fener is coming off the series against Zalgiris Kaunas. It was not easy to beat Lithuanians, but it wasn’t that hard as well. Fener managed to close the series in 4 games. They beat Zalgiris mainly because of their defense and a long bench. Sometimes Kaunas looked like fools when Fenerbahce’s guards were stealing one ball after another. This huge depth that they have, maybe a key to victory. Every single player of their team in danger and it doesn’t matter when he shows up on the court.

As Sloukas and Vesely were struggling to play their A game, Fener still found resources. Muhammed Ali was great in this series and made a huge difference on the court by hitting clutch shots. Marko Guduric was also fantastic. He was great on both ends of the court and his fastbreak points were one of the best weapons.

Fener has some trouble with their players’ health. James Ennis and Joffrey Lauvergne surely won’t show up on the court. Nikola Kalinic will probably play, but he had some problems with his shoulder. Same situation with Jan Vesely: he is about to play, but is questionable until the last day.

 

Anadolu Efes Istanbul

Anadolu is coming of exhausting series against Barcelona. It took them 5 games to beat them. In their last game of the quarter-final series, Efes made 17 three-pointers which is a huge amount of long-range shots, in Europe. This could be one of their best weapons in this semi-final.

The leading player of Anadolu is Shane Larkin. He has been very hot lately. He led Euroleague playoffs with 19.8ppg and also set Euroleague playoffs record with 18 three-pointers in only 5 games. Alongside him, Efes has Vasilje Micic. He is a great point guard who has nice length and vision of the court. The biggest struggle was his shooting ability, but since he has fixed this issue it looks like the sky is the limit for this player.

Anadolu has no injured players.

Efes’ leading scorers in the playoffs were: Shane Larkin (19.6ppg, 3.2apg, 50% 3pFG%), Vasilje Micic (12.8ppg, 6.6apg, 1.6stpg), Adrien Moerman (13ppg, 5rpg, 1.8apg).

 

H2H

So this is a Turkish derby and both teams want to win it really bad. It will be a tough, physical game, with a lot of strategies, as these two teams have one of the best coaches in Europe. Fener has more experience in these type of games, however, Anadolu has been hot lately and it is only one game that decides the winner, so anything can happen.

 

Article Image Taken from https://www.euroleague.net/main/results/showgame?gamecode=164&seasoncode=E2015