Liga Endesa: Five of top eight teams fall

While there’s still a lot of basketball to play in Spain’s Liga Endesa, when five of the top eight teams lose in any particular week, it’s not difficult to predict that the last few weeks of the regular season are going to be interesting. With only eight of 18 teams making the playoffs, 13 teams within five games of each other, and only 11 games remaining in the regular season to play, the shuffling that will be going on for spots three through eight will be constant.

The top club, Real Madrid hasn’t quite mathematically locked in a spot yet, but with a win next week (Week 24), they will. It’s not going to far out on a limb to predict that they’ll end up with the top seed as they are currently 22-1 with a +340 score differential. In other words, the men from Madrid have dominated the Liga Endesa and there’s little doubt that they won’t continue. They pounded UCAM Murcia CB Sunday 86:69 at home, giving them eight straight wins after their lost to FC Barcelona Regal in Week 15. Moving on…

The No. 2 spot his currently held by Caja Laboral at 19-4, five games ahead of the No. 3 team(s) and seven games ahead of the clubs occupying the No. 8 position. With 11 games to play, there’s a possibility that Caja could face a major meltdown and somehow drop to the No. 9 spot and out of the playoffs, but placing large wagers against that happening wouldn’t be considering out of the ordinary. They did greatly help their cause on Sunday with a huge road win over FC Barcelona, 67:69, snapping a 14-game winning streak in all competitions including the ACB, the Euroleague and having recently won the Copa del Rey, by Barça in the process. Barcelona sits in a tie for the No. 4 spot at 14-9 after the loss.

Tied with Barcelona for the No. 4 spot is Uxue Bilbao Basket and Herbalife Gran Canaria, all sporting 14-9 records. Bilbao didn’t help their cause on Sunday losing to No. 10 Unicaja 63:59 on the road as it pulled them out of the third place tie they had after Week 22 with Barcelona, four games down on Caja Laboral. Herbalife picked up a game on both Barcelona and Bilbao with a 78:70 win over CB Canarias, who drops to 9-14, only three games out of the No. 8 spot.

One game back from the trio tied in No. 4, is the duo of CAI Zaragoza and Valencia Baskets, both with 13-10 records. Both clubs had a rough time in Week 23, Zaragoza took to the road for a contest against No. 9 Blusens Monbus and came out on the short end of a 72:64 decision and Valencia fell hard to No. 13 Cajasol at home 66:72. The loss to Monbus brings the two clubs to within two games of each other as it improves Monbus’ record to 11-12 and only one game out of the last playoff spot. Cajasol improves to 9-14 and only three games back of the No. 8 spot. It’s Cajasol’s second win in a row after losing three straight.

The No. 8 and final playoff position is currently held by Asefa Estudiantes, who dropped a home match to Valladolid, 77:80. The results keep Valladolid, now 9-14, in the hunt for the playoffs and tighten things up in the middle with Asefa dropping to 12-11.

Also in the mix are No. 11 FIATC Joventut, who fell to Mad-Croc Fuenlabrada, 86:92, at home, to drop their record to 11-12 and one game out of the playoff slots. Mad-Croc is five games down from making the playoffs and while possible, they are going to have to pick up a number of solid wins like Sunday’s upset over Joventut. Possible, but highly unlikely.

The teams in the No. 3 spot (Barça, Bilbao, and Gran Canaria) are all at 14-9, but only two wins ahead of Asefa Estudiantes in No. 8.

The No. 6 position is held by CAI Zaragoza and Valencia Basket at 13-10, one win ahead of No. 8, two wins in front of the three clubs tied at No. 9 (Blusens, Unicaja and Joventut) and only three ahead of UCAM Murcia in the No. 12 spot. None of these clubs can consider their position safe or out of the picture, depending on their situation.

Asefa Estudiantes is currently on the bubble and loosely holding the last playoff spot with seven clubs within three games of their 12-11 record. They have to not lose close contests like they did Sunday against Vaaladolid if they expect to stay inside the advancement circle.

Week 24 will prove to shake things up further with No. 5 Gran Canaria vs. No. 6 CAI Zaragoza; No. 11 Joventut vs. No. 12 Murcia; and No. 7 Valencia vs. No. 8 Asefa Estudiantes; and No. 4 Bilbao vs. No. 15 Valladolid. The game of the week could be No. 1 Real Madrid vs. No. 2 Caja Laboral as the first contest ended with Real winning 83:81 in Madrid.

Spain Liga Endesa

This Week’s Liga Endesa Matches[matches league_id=4 match_day=23 template=summary dateformat=”M. j, Y”]

Liga Endesa Standings[standings league_id=4 show_website=false template=nolink]

Next Week’s Liga Endesa Matches[matches league_id=4 match_day=24 template=sumnoscore dateformat=”M. j, Y”]