Thanks to its historic victory on the Real Madrid prosecution on Tuesday (73-81), Paris Basketball is in the quarterfinals of the Euroligue. The capital’s club continues to push the limits of its potential.
The appetite comes by eating and Paris Basketball never seems satisfied. Welcomed as a curiosity from which you should not wait much for its first season in the Euroleague, the capital’s club has risen in the quarterfinals of the largest basketball competition in the world after the NBA. He won a historic victory in the play-offs on Tuesday evening on the Real Madrid prosecution (73-81), reigning European vice-champion.
History because, in the modern era of the Euroligue (since 1996), Real, the most titled European club in history (11 coronations), had welcomed a French team twelve times, and only Monaco in 2022 had won. Historical also because, apart from Monaco, it had been more than twenty years that a club in the French championship had no longer reached this competition stadium. “I think we had already marked the story, but we did it a little more tonight”rightly savor Nadir Hifi, one of the great craftsmen of the Parisian victory (15 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists).
An almost perfect assessment among the big Euroligue
The rest will be facing Fenerbahce, another mastodon, quarter finalist in 2023, fourth in 2024 and Dauphin de l’Olympiakos in the regular season this season. What awaits Paris is a series at the best of three rounds, with the first two in Istanbul, in an atmosphere that promises to be burning (April 22 and 24).
Can Tiago Splitter players still thwart the forecasts and access the Final Four? Now no one would dare to say the opposite. Paris, 8th in the regular season, displays an excellent assessment outside, having made its law with Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, Barcelona, Monaco and therefore Real Madrid. A single big team resisted him, and it is … Fenerbahce. But the context of this defeat only strengthens the hopes of the vice-champion of France.
On March 25, Parisians counted five points a minute from the end. They were crucified (101-100) on a distant shot, at the Buzzer, from Nigel Hayes-Davis, American winger (30 years, 2.03 m) formidable at 3-PTS and the main offensive weapon of the Turkish club. However, this is a team on the defense that Paris will find, an opposition of style when we know the affection of the Ile-de-France for the fast game and the 3-PTS shooting. An area that Fenerbahce also loves, 2nd team that takes the most shots at 3-PTS and 4th best address in the Euroligue (37.9%).
Shortes-hifi, the duo of Punomiers in attack
As often, Paris will rely on its star tj shorts which, in the columns of The teamapproached “Best European leader”. The pocket player (25 years old, 1.75 m), candidate for the best player in Euroligue (18.8 pts and 7.5 assists on the season), has unlocked all the defenses that were opposed to him so far. The walking firecracker Nadir Hifi (22, 1.84 m), elected best young player in the competition but sometimes irregular, will also be an asset.
Despite his meager experience, the Eurocoupe winner club (the second European Cup) in 2024 can, like a neighboring football club, dreaming bigger. In the event of qualification for the Final Four, scheduled from May 23 to 25 in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Paris would find Panathinaikos or Anadolu Efes in the semi-finals. Monaco is on the other side of the table, and must first cross the Barcelona obstacle in quarters.
