Anadolu Efes eyes Euroleague title at Final Four

Turkish club Anadolu Efes will take on CSKA Moscow on May 28 in the semifinals of the 2021 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four in Cologne to launch its bid for the club's maiden Euroleague trophy.

The lineup for the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four features the teams that played in the championship game at the last Final Four, as well as two teams returning to continental basketball's brightest stage after a lengthy layoff.

The other semifinal at Lanxess Arena on May 28 will pit Barcelona against Armani Exchange Milan.

Anadolu Efes is looking for its first European trophy in 25 years after becoming the first Turkish club in any sport to win a pan-European competition, the Korac Cup, in 1996.

The last Euroleague championship game will be replayed in this season's semifinal game between Efes and CSKA.

While Efes brings back the same core of players from the 2019 championship game, led by All-Euroleague guards Vasilije Micic and Shane Larkin, CSKA has a different look with Toko Shengelia and Iffe Lundberg having joined, though 2019 Final Four MVP Will Clyburn remains.

A high-scoring affair could be imagined between these two teams, which were the top two scoring teams in the league this season, with CSKA topping the charts with 84.4 points per game and Efes averaging 84.1.

Remarkably, they were also among the best at taking care of the ball with Efes's 11.3 turnovers per game the second-fewest in the competition and CSKA's 12.3 ranked third-fewest.

Efes, which will play its fourth Final Four, needed the maximum five playoff games to squeeze by Real Madrid in the playoffs, after dominating Los Blancos by a combined 50 points in Games 1 and 2, it blew late leads in Games 3 and 4, but held steady to win...