Source EuroLeague Basketball Since the current Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs format was established back in 2005, it has become a showcase for the biggest players to bring out their best basketball for the most decisive stage of the season. Whether by leading their teams to many Final Fours, stepping up against all odds, or just being consistently solid at such a critical time, many players fortified their status as EuroLeague stars in the playoffs. Here are some of our favorite playoff legends.
When it comes to being a playoffs legend, Diamantidis checks all the right boxes. In 2011, he led Panathinaikos to a 3-1 series win past defending champion Barcelona without home-court advantage on the way to that season’s title. The next spring, he had 25 points, 12 fouls drawn and a PIR of 34 in a Game 5 win against Maccabi. A year later, he buried a three-pointer to win Game 1 on the road, 65-66. Although Barcelona would go on to take revence in that series, Diamantidis had already won five consecutive playoffs with the Greens in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2012. He is still the all-time playoffs leader in steals, with 45, and also amassed 328 points, 119 rebounds and 147 assists in 37 games.
No-one has most playoffs experience than Llull, who has played 42 games in this stage since 2005, all with Real Madrid, with whom he will start his ??th series on Wednesday against Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade. Since his first playoff appearance in 2011, Llull has helped Los Blancos win eight series. In 2018, Llull returned to action midway through a series against Panathinaikos to help his team reach the Final Four and go on to lift the trophy. His overall record in the playoffs is ??-?? in series and 24-18 in games (57.1%). Among playoff performers all-time, he ranks second in both scoring (465 points) and assists (160). He now has a chance to increase those numbers and help Real win its 11th EuroLeague title.
Khryapa holds the record for most Final Four appearances, 12, all of them with CSKA Moscow. After helping his team reach the Final Four in 2003 and 2004 from the Top 16, Khryapa went on to win 10 playoff series without a loss for CSKA, from 2005 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018. Khryapa boasts a phenomenal winning record of 23-7 (76.7%) in games. He had 190 points, 147 rebounds and 82 assists in 10 playoffs series. If Khryapa was in the playoffs for CSKA, victory was certain.
Scola played just two playoffs series with Baskonia but he made sure he was forever remembered at this stage. In the first year of the new playoffs format, he led Baskonia to the 2005 Final Four by sweeping Benetton Treviso without the home-court advantage. In Game 1 of the series, Baskonia thrashed Benetton 59-98 behind 34 points on 15-of-16 two-point shooting from Scola. His PIR of 43 from that game is still a playoffs record. In 2006, Baskonia became the first (and so far, only) team to win a do-or-die showdown on the road, defeating Panathinaikos 71-74 to reach the Final Four as Scola contributed 11 rebounds and 4 assists.
Singleton is the ultimate Game 5 hero, putting together two of his best-ever EuroLeague performances in this do-or-die situation. In 2016, he led Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar to the Final Four with 16 points, 12 rebounds and a PIR of 27 in an 81-67 win over FC Barcelona that was worth a trip to the Final Four. It was Singleton’s first EuroLeague double-double and would remain his only one through his first 66 games. Then, in 2021, he exploded again in another Game 5, posting career highs of 26 points and 38 PIR as Anadolu Efes Istanbul outlasted Real Madrid in a classic, 88-83, on the way to the first of its back-to-back EuroLeague titles.
Sloukas’s main playoff moment came in Game 4 of the 2017 series between Olympiacos and Barca, when his no-look pass allowed Georgios Printezis to hit a game-winning three-pointer that sent the Reds to the Final Four. Sloukas is a playoffs specialist, advancing to the Final Four eight times in nine playoffs series. His only loss came in 2014, when Real beat Olympiacos 3-2. Sloukas is tied with Andrey Vorontsevich for the most playoff games won, 26, which means he will take over first place with the first victory by Olympiacos in its series against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, which starts on Wednesday. He has a playoffs record of 26-11 (70.3%).
Spanoulis took part in eight playoffs series, winning five of them. Despite ranking just fourth in games played (38), Spanoulis is the all-time playoffs leader in scoring (531) and assists (189). He averaged 14.0 points, 5.0 assists, 5.0 fouls drawn and a PIR of 13.2 . He had 22 points, 6 assists and 10 fouls drawn in Olympiacos’s come-from-behind victory against Efes in Game 5 of the 2017 playoffs. His playoffs heroics led to even bigger accomplishments: Spanoulis won three EuroLeague titles, earning Final Four MVP honors each time.
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