Anadolu Efes - Fenerbahce

Turkey - TBSL, Round 27

The two-time and still current Euroleague champions, Anadolu Efes, have finally found the right attacking rhythm. After a disappointing end of the Euroleague campaign, the long-term complete team is playing exceptionally well in the domestic championship.

An excellent opportunity to confirm the good attacking form is the big city derby against a tired Fenerbahce squad, which was left disappointed and tired last week, after being eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Euroleague. On their home field in Istanbul, Efes will have a great chance, in the previously postponed match of the 27th round of the Turkish Super Lig - to take advantage of all the current problems of their great rival.

So far, Efes has achieved a performance of 20-8 and is only fourth in the table of the domestic championship, but in the previous weeks they have significantly improved their form. Last weekend, the famous team won against the leader in the table, the exceptional Turk Telekom, even 102:87. The victory would have been more convincing if the guests had not scored 37 points in the fourth quarter, when the match was already decided.

Since the end of the Euroleague, Efes has played four games in the Turkish Super Lig and scored at least 102 points in three of them. It says it best, how well the main players, the guards of the team from Istanbul, Vasilije Micic and Shane Larkin, are in good rhythm. Also, Croatian center Ante Zizic is playing better and better, in the last game he scored 22 points and seems to be in top form in the playoffs.

Fenerbahce beat Darusafaka 79:73 last weekend. The team has played six matches in the last 18 days alone, and cannot afford the luxury of playing tired or without energy on the road against Efes.

The match is more important for the guests at this moment, because they are still in the game for first place before the playoffs (Fenerbahce's record is 22-5 in the Turkish Super Lig). However, it cannot be said that the team is in good shape. In the last eight games, Fenerbahce players scored 80 points only once, and they lost four times.

Also, a big problem for Fenerbahce is the situation with the best player this season, forward Johnathan Motley. The player who has an average of 14.7 points was sent to the locker room in the previous match, after an argument with the famous coach Dimitris Itoudis. It remains to be seen how this situation will affect the team - and the conflict in the squad came at the worst moment, before visiting the best rival in the Turkish championship.

Efes has a better performance in all shooting categories this season, shooting three-pointers with as much as 41.3 percent realization and scoring 87.9 points per match (Fenerbahce scores 85.9 points per game). In recent weeks, Efes has significantly improved that performance, and overall they are playing better and more efficiently in their arena. In addition to his offensive performance, it will be extremely important that celebrated guard Shane Larkin plays good defense. This season, he has even 1.4 steals per game in Super Lig.