Liga Endesa Playoffs: 8 remaining teams battle for the title / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: ZUMAPRESS.com - Scanpix Credit ZUMAPRESS.com - Scanpix

The last round of the regular season in the Spanish ACB League, known as Liga Endesa, was played on Saturday, and all eight teams that will be fighting for the prestigious title are now clear.

The Teams

FC Barcelona captured the top stop in the standings with 27 wins and only 7 losses during the year. Led by Nikola Mirotic and Brandon Davies, the Catalan club ensured the first place in the regular season several weeks before the final round.

Real Madrid were comfortably second, winning 25 matches out of the possible 34. They lost both games against the first-placed Barcelona by a combined margin of 21 points. Led by a big man duo of Edy Tavares and Vincent Poirier, the royal club finished the regular season with 6 wins in a row.

Next, we have the EuroCup semifinalists Valencia Basket and fellow EuroCup competitors Joventut Badalona who sensationally lost to ratiopharm Ulm in the Round of 16 in the European competition.

The fifth spot was captured by the Basketball Champions League winners Lenovo Tenerife who beat MoraBanc Andorra in the last round, sending the opponents to the relegation. The team that battled Tenerife in the BCL final, BAXI Manresa, finished the season in 7th place.

The sixth spot is reserved for Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz who finished the year on a good note winning four out of their last five matches after having started the season on a difficult path.

The Top-8 is rounded out by CB Gran Canaria. Although they lost their final match of the season against Real Madrid, the team that could have taken the final spot lost in a dramatic fashion last night, as Surne Bilbao Basket lost by a single point after overtime to Coosur Real Betis, thus, failing to qualify to the playoffs.

The Format

All quarterfinals are being played in a Best of Three series, meaning the team has to win two games against the same opponent in order to advance further.

The semifinal and the final series are Best of Five as the teams battle until one of them captures three wins versus the same team.

The teams are seeded by their finishing places in the standings of the regular season.

The playoffs seeds are as follows:

FC Barcelona Real Madrid Valencia Basket Joventut Badalona Lenovo Tenerife Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz BAXI Manresa Gran Canaria

The Pairs

The eight teams will battle each other in the following pairs:

#1 FC Barcelona vs. #8 Gran Canaria

#2 Real Madrid vs. #7 BAXI Manresa

#3 Valencia Basket vs. #6 Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz

#4 Joventut Badalona vs. #5 Lenovo Tenerife

The playoffs start the following Tuesday after the EuroLeague Final Four, May 24th.

The first match of the series will be played in the arena of the higher-seeded team. The second game is scheduled to be played on the lower-seeded team's court, while the final match of the series, if needed, returns to the arena of the higher-seeded team.

The winner of the Barcelona-Gran Canaria series will meet the Joventut-Tenerife series winner, while the better team in the Real Madrid-Manresa series will face the winner of the Valencia-Baskonia series.

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