EuroLeague Week 22 Winners and Losers: Hot takes on the final double game week of the EuroLeague season

At this stage of the EuroLeague season, a good or bad double-game week can make or break your season. Second through sixth in the league table is separated by one game, four teams are tied for tenth with a 14-17 record. Rattling off two wins or suffering two losses can drastically alter your position in the league table, your playoff matchups, and thus — your EuroLeague Final Four odds. With an exciting week of action behind us, here are some hot takes on key teams' performances.

EuroLeague Week 22 Winners and Losers: Are Milano the team seed to avoid in the playoffs?

Ettore Messina’s Milano has looked dead in the water multiple times this season. Before Nikola Mirotic got injured and during the Kevin Pangos saga, when Nikola Mirotic got injured, and when they lost to ASVEL in Round 27. But, Milano went 2-0 last week — securing wins over Monaco on the road and Fenerbahce at home. That’s two attention-grabbing victories right there. They’ve won four of their last six and are currently in 10th, the final play-in spot. 

They’re 7-7 since bringing Shabazz Napier in from Crvena Zvezda mid-season and while their roster construction remains sub-optimal — eight guards, six bigs, and one wing — they can put together five-man groups that are among the league’s best. Napier, Devon Hall, Shavon Shields, Mirotic, and one of Nicolo Melli, Johannes Voigtmann, or Alex Poythress are borderline Final Four level units. In their last game against Fenerbahce, they opted for Melli at the five and started Tonut over Hall. They spaced the floor and created wide-open driving lanes for Napier and Shields, and Fenerbahce struggled to contain the Italian club. 

This is likely a case of too little, too late, and their final three games are no walk in the park: Zalgiris away, at home against Bologna, and they close the season against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Belgrade. But if Milano finally strings together an extended stretch of playing their best basketball and gets into the playoffs off of that, they have the star power to truly be a handful for any match-up. Messina’s men are still alive, to say the least. 

EuroLeague Week 22 Winners and Losers: Are Barcelona tough enough?

Tough may not be the best word choice here — and we definitely don’t want to insinuate that this team isn’t down to fight, they are. But they can get overmatched both physically and mentally, that’s been a trend all season. This was a tough double-game week — going to Istanbul to play Fenerbahce, the best home team in EuroLeague, and then heading to OAKA to face Panathinaikos. Any team would be capable of going 0-2 here, Real Madrid lost back-to-back games against these teams and they were at home for both of them! 

But in Istanbul, Barcelona got punched in the mouth and had to spend the entire first half searching for answers. Dario Brizuela gave them a late first-half spark, carried that play into the second half, and helped the Catalan side go from down 25 to down three early in the fourth quarter. James Nnaji got some first-half minutes too, as Fenerbahce continued to bully Jan Vesely and Willy Hernagomez in the post to start the game. 

In Athens, Barcelona landed the first few punches. Rokas Jokubaitis started over Nicolas Laprovittola to match up better with Panathinaikos' backcourt of Kendrick Nunn and Jerian Grant. It was a wise move by Roger Grimau and helped Barcelona impose themselves physically on the game and build a 15-point lead in the first half. That lead was down to 10 at the half, and one heading into the final frame. Barcelona was spiraling, picking up cheap technical fouls, and making sloppy turnovers, and Panathinaikos took the lead early in the fourth quarter and pulled away with relative ease. Barcelona’s a solid team, with good talent up and down, but they don’t seem to have the resolve necessary to grind through the tough times. 

Instead, they unravel for extended stretches and flail around before they can get afloat. By then, they’ve often dug themselves too deep a hole or blown a lead they never should have. Their game management is not ideal, as Ricky Rubio continues to adjust on his EuroLeague return hopefully he can help with some of that because that’s not a strength of any of their other guards. Physically, Vesely and Hernangomez struggle in several matchups. They get pushed around and out of where they want to be and fail to protect the rim. Nnaji was a real stabilizing factor against Fenerbahce. That’s great for him, but a bad sign for Barcelona. These problems have existed all season, and solutions don’t seem to exist. 

EuroLeague Week 22 Winners and Losers: Maccabi Tel Aviv is on a five-game winning streak

After a rough double-game week at the end of January that saw Maccabi fall to Real Madrid and Baskonia, they carried that dip in form into their final game before the EuroLeague break and made it three losses in a row with a 105-91 defeat at the hands of Anadolu Efes in Istanbul. Maccabi was 13-13 but rejuvenated at the break, and hasn’t lost since — winning five in a row. They are in seventh and only one game behind Olympiacos and Fenerbahce for sixth and fifth. 

None of these wins are anything to write home about — three road wins over ALBA, Crvena Zvezda, and Bayern plus two wins in Belgrade over Zalgiris and ASVEL. But at this stage of the EuroLeague season, winning the games you’re supposed to can be hard to come by, just ask Bologna, Olympiacos, or Monaco — three teams that had bad losses last week. 

Maccabi will close the season hosting Valencia in Belgrade, then traveling to Barcelona, and then hosting Milano. It’s not an easy stretch but a good test of whether or not this five-game run has made them believers in themselves once again. Wade Baldwin has been fantastic for this win streak, dropping 30 points, 10 assists, and 5 rebounds against ASVEL and 16 points against ALBA and Zalgiris respectively. He’s playing at an All-EuroLeague level right now, their bigs are wreaking havoc, and James Webb III is shooting the ball well from deep. It’s hard to get invested in Maccabi’s upside without their home court but their perseverance is endearing and a Final Four appearance on its own would be one of the stories of the season. 

EuroLeague Week 22 Lines of the Week

Mario Hezonja’s 25 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists in Real Madrid’s road win over Partizan Belgrade. He’s been one of the best players in EuroLeague this season. 

EuroLeague Week 22 Quote of the Week

Not a quote, but as someone who is often harsh in their assessment of Nick Calathes, his breaking the EuroLeague All-Time Steals record deserves praise and recognition.    

EuroLeague Week 22 Clip of the Week

Needing Tyrique Jones to swat a game-winning layup attempt against ALBA Berlin is not ideal, but he got it done and Efes got the win.