Anadolu Efes vs CSKA: Which of the two Final Four participants is better now?

It’s a shame that these teams are meeting so early. They should have played in the winter when they will be in shape. At the moment, neither CSKA nor Efes look like elite Euroleague participants. Let’s try to imagine what awaits us on Friday night.

In the first quarter, Efes got crushed by Real Madrid last week, 32-15, and then held on to their lead. They kept it close without any trouble. Even though the Spaniards lost the final quarter 14-21, they still had a double-digit lead - 82-69.

After the game, Ergin Ataman was furious at the press conference. He called his team’s play awful, called the players “tourists,” and was angry. Frankly, I seriously doubt that the head coach’s emotions will make the Efes players feel any better. And their form at the moment isn’t great.

Rodrigue Beaubois got 23 minutes of playing time, three points, one shot out of 10 from the field. Vasilije Micic - 24 minutes of playing time, nine points, three shots out of 10. The rest of Istanbul’s players are the same or about the same. Larkin and newcomer Filip Petrushev are the exceptions. The young Serb from Gonzaga scored 17 points but didn’t show much on his 2.11 rebounding effort. Efes lost the rebounding battle to Real Madrid, 21-47.

Of course, after Milutinov’s injury, the rebounding will be more difficult, but the Army team won 39-32 in Milan even without Nikola. They’ve lost on offense, but Schengelia and Shved can’t always shoot the ball from under the basket. Grigonis can also help if he manages to heal his back. If he hasn’t, he’ll lose one more defender and have big problems on offense.

The Lithuanian did not play in Nizhny Novgorod. If something’s bothering him, it may not go away in a couple of days.

The other players went to the Volga and beat Nizhny there 92-72. Everything looked good, but Moscovites again only scored nine of 29 from a distance (eight of 29 in Milan), with Shengelia and Shved hitting six of 15 and three of 10 from the field, respectively. Those two have the worst shooting percentage on the team so far. Given that they attack more often than anyone else, that’s a problem that could well affect the result in Istanbul.

Efes’s defense does not resemble that of Nizhny Novgorod at all. There’s no reason to expect either team to score again with the Turks’ and our clubs’ conversion rate. Miсic seems out of shape, Shengelia is useless offensively, and Grigonis may or may not play, and if so, we’ll remember his performance in Milan. That’s why I’ve chosen the following bets:

• Each team will score under 86.5 for 2.12;
• Individual Total 2 Under 80.5 for 1.66;
• Handicap 2 (+4.5) for 1.93.