Real Madrid - Anadolu Efes 57:58 (15-14, 19-15, 8-11, 15-18)
STARK Arena, Serbia
Attadances: apx. 19.000

Packed Arena, and the biggest game of the year! All is ready for action. The first timeout was called by Anadolu Efes with an 8:6 result and another turnover by Ergin Ataman (agency: BeoBasket ) players. It was 3:54 until the end of the first quarter. After timeout Anadolu Efes players did not respond well, as Real Madrid is creating mini-series with 4:0 and the result is now 12:6, Walter Tavares (220-C-1992) was scoring easy baskets inside the paint (10pts). Vasilije Micic (196-PG-1994, agency: BeoBasket) responded with a bucket as he scored 6 points at that point, but another response from Walter Tavares, he is now at 12 points alongside his name and the result is 15:8 for Real Madrid, only one minute left to go. Shane Larkin (182-G-1992, college: Miami, FL) having two great offensive actions, as he scored 3 points and 2+1 after the faul. Anadolu Efes is creating 0:6 series for 15:14 and the end of the first ten minutes into big final.
In the first minute of the second quarter, we saw a first lead of Anadolu Efes via Vasilije Micic who scored a layup for 15:16 for Turkish team. Jeffery Taylor (201-F-1989, college: Vanderbilt) and Rudy Fernandez (196-F-1985, agency: Octagon Europe) are responding and Real Madrid is again in the lead, this time 24:22 (5:43 minutes until the end of half-time). The Spanish team is now in great momentum, Fabien Causeur (196-F-1987) is scoring his first two points and Anthony Randolph (211-F-1989, college: LSU) splashing outside the three-point line for 29:22, Sergio Llull (190-G-1987) had 3 assists at that moment. Now it's time for Efes to respond, Vasilije Micic did take leadrship position and scoring three points for 31:29 but after that Efes didn't manage to score any more in the first half. Anthony Randolph scored another three points for total 34:29 in first 20 minutes of this game.
The most efficient in home* team was Walter Tavares with 12 points and 7 rebounds, Vincent Poirier (213-C-1993) had 4 points and 2 rebounds, while Anthony Randolph scored 6 points, with 2 rebounds.
Vasilije Micic was leader of Anadolu Efes with 13 points, while Shane Larkin had 10 ad 2 assists.

STATISTIC AFTER 20 MIN:
Real Madrid: 2FGP 11/22 (50.0%), 3PT 3/15 (20.0%), FT: 3/5 (60.0%), 21rbd (8o+13d), 9ast, 3stl, PIR: 40
Anadolu Efes: 2FGP 9/18 (50.0%), 3PT 3/12 (25.0%), FT: 2/3 (66.7%), 21rbd (5o+16d), 2ast, 1stl, PIR: 31

It was a very tough third quarter for both teams, with a lot of nervous and empty minutes on both ends, which result in only 19 point score in total (8:11 for Anadolu Efes in the 3rd Quarter). After 3 minutes and 30 seconds, it was only 3:2 for Real Madrid. After that Real went into a very nice lead for them, it was 39:31 only 4:52 until the end of the third period. But once again, like Phoenix from ashes, Anadolu Efes is coming back to the game via Tibor Pleiss (221-C-1989) who scored three-point and after that another 2 points from free throw line. We saw a miss from Shane Larkin for the end of the third quarter and the result was 42:40 for Spanish team.
Similar to the third quarter we get the last period of this EuroLeague season. The first point was scored by Vasilije Micic for Anadolu Efes lead (42:43). A bit more than 4 minutes until the end, Sergio Llull is scoring three points for one point lead for Real, and we saw enormous amounts of offensive rebounds by Real Madrid in this game (18 in total), which was not enough apparently. Tibor Pleiss had final word in this game, he scored 4 points in series, after that Vasilije Micic scored 3 point for 50:53 lead for Efes. We went to the last seconds of this game with 1 point difference (57:58 for Efes), they had ball and 14 seconds until the end of their action, ball went to the corner to Shane Larkin who didn't score in second half at all - he shoots and he MISS, but there is a bunch of rebounds, only 4 seconds on the clock...ball is in the air and...time is up!
Anadolu Efes is a back-to-back EuroLeague Champion! Vasilije Micic was voted as F4 MVP.

STATISTIC AFTER 40 MIN:
Real Madrid: 2FGP 14/34 (41.2%), 3PT 6/33 (18.2%), FT: 11/17 (64.7%), 40rbd (18o+22d), 14ast, 6stl, PIR: 54
Anadolu Efes: 2FGP 17/32 (53.1%), 3PT 6/24 (25.0%), FT: 6/9 (66.7%), 44rbd (11o+33d), 7ast, 5stl, PIR: 70

KEY PLAYERS
Real Madrid: Walter Tavares 14pts+11rbd, Vincent Poirier 5pts+4bd+2ast, Sergio Llull 9pts+6ast
Anadolu Efes: Vasilije Micic 23pts+2rbd+2ast, Tibor Pleiss 19pts+7rbd, Shane Larkin 10pts+6rbd+4ast

Until next season!

Finals MVP: Vasilije Micic (196-PG-1994) of Anadolu Efes
Player of the Year: Nikola Mirotic (208-PF-1991) of Barca
Guard of the Year: Shane Larkin (182-G-1992) of Anadolu Efes
Forward of the Year: Nikola Mirotic (208-PF-1991) of Barca
Center of the Year: Walter Tavares (220-C-1992) of Real Madrid
European Player of the Year: Nikola Mirotic (208-PF-1991) of Barca
Defensive Player of the Year: Kyle Hines (198-C-1986) of Milano
Rising Star of the Year: Rokas Jokubaitis (193-G-2000) of Barca
Coach of the Year: Giorgos Bartzokas of Olympiacos

Eurobasket.com All-Euroleague 1st Team 2022

James

Larkin

Mirotic

Vezenkov

Tavares

First Team
Mike James (185-G-1990) of Monaco
Shane Larkin (182-G-1992) of Anadolu Efes
Nikola Mirotic (208-PF-1991) of Barca
Aleksandar Vezenkov (206-PF-1995) of Olympiacos
Walter Tavares (220-C-1992) of Real Madrid

Eurobasket.com All-Euroleague Second Team 2022

Sloukas

Micic

Shields

Lucic

Papagiannis

Second Team
Kostas Sloukas (190-PG-1990) of Olympiacos
Vasilije Micic (196-PG-1994) of Anadolu Efes
Shavon Shields (201-F-1994) of Milano
Vladimir Lucic (204-SF-1989) of Bayern
Georgios Papagiannis (220-C-1997) of Panathinaikos

Honorable Mention
Jan Vesely (213-C-1990) of Fenerbahce
Ante Zizic (209-C-1997) of Maccabi T-A
Wade Baldwin IV (193-PG-1996) of Baskonia
Scottie Wilbekin (188-G-1993) of Maccabi T-A
Maodo Lo (191-PG-1992) of ALBA
Elie Okobo (191-G-1997) of ASVEL
James Nunnally (201-F-1990) of Maccabi T-A
Guerschon Yabusele (201-PF-1995) of Real Madrid
Dwayne Bacon (201-SF-1995) of Monaco
Luke Sikma (202-PF-1989) of ALBA

Eurobasket.com All-Euroleague All-Europeans Team 2022

Sloukas

Micic

Vezenkov

Mirotic

Papagiannis

All-Europeans Team
Kostas Sloukas (190-PG-1990) of Olympiacos
Vasilije Micic (196-PG-1994) of Anadolu Efes
Aleksandar Vezenkov (206-PF-1995) of Olympiacos
Nikola Mirotic (208-PF-1991) of Barca
Georgios Papagiannis (220-C-1997) of Panathinaikos

Eurobasket.com All-Euroleague All-Imports Team 2022

James

Larkin

Nunnally

Sikma

Tavares

All-Imports Team
Mike James (185-G-1990) of Monaco
Shane Larkin (182-G-1992) of Anadolu Efes
James Nunnally (201-F-1990) of Maccabi T-A
Luke Sikma (202-PF-1989) of ALBA
Walter Tavares (220-C-1992) of Real Madrid