Soon after advancing to the EuroLeague's Final Four, coach Ergin Ataman once again warned their future opponents saying they should be afraid of Anadolu Efes Istanbul.

2-pointers this season

57%
19,6
Points made: 19,6
Accuracy: 57,0%
Place in standings: 9
Record max: 28
Record min: 13
Most made 2FGs: Vasilije Micic

Did Efes really look that good in the quarterfinal series against AX Armani Exchange Milan, or was it just a favorable matchup against an injury-depleted team? BasketNews' Augustas Suliauskas broke down the most important moments of this series.

This was more of a fight between different philosophies than a chess match between coaches. Both Messina and Ataman hardly believe in their team's abilities and the work they put in behind the scenes, so you could hardly notice any adjustments throughout the series.

However, some things were crucial in deciding who was going to the Final Four.

Game 1

As everyone could have expected, Milan started Game 1 by switching most of the screens against Larkin and Micic to break Anadolu out of their fast-flowing offensive rhythm.

Efes themselves knew it was going to happen but didn't prepare anything special - just like all season long, they were going to live with their dynamic duo making isolation plays against opponent bigs.

On the other side of the court, we witnessed one of the worst offensive performances in Milan's team history. Hit by injuries and Covid right before the series started, the Italian squad looked sluggish as ever and without any flow in their free game.

Efes weren't doing anything in particular on defense, yet Armani still shot a horrible 30% from the field. In the end, the game was decided by who else than one of Efes' two best players.

They couldn't keep missing all 40 minutes, and Shane Larkin was the one to show off his talents and help the Turks steal home-court advantage.

Game 2

Naturally, the losing side was the one to make adjustments for Game 2. After seeing Larkin win the game with individual efforts, Messina instructed his players to send occasional double teams against Larkin and Micic whenever they were starting to play 1-on-1 after switches.

This meant a couple of things: Milan chose to rather live with more open shots by others than get beat by Micic and Larkin, and they hoped for chaos on kick-out passes.

As this switch and double tactic was a new thing in Game 2, it worked well for Armani with possessions finishing with missed shots or turnovers by Anadolu. Additionally, we saw a completely different intensity from the hosts on both sides of the court.

With Melli, Mitoglou, and Datome out for the major part of this quarterfinal, Messina was forced to rely on Shields and Rodriguez's scoring and creativity.

With Pleiss, Dunston, and others getting up to the level of the screen, they weren't allowed to do much from pick&roll directly. Instead, Milan constantly looked to attack it with kick-outs to those whose defenders went to help on rolling bigs.

For all four games, it remained the only real weapon Armani Exchange had because of injuries that helped create some advantage on the offensive end.

Game 3

To start Game 3, Ergin Ataman made his only move of the series, and it had an enormous impact - Tibor Pleiss entered the starting lineup, and after playing only 28 minutes in the first 2 games combined, German spent almost the same amount in the third game alone.

The German center became the much-needed third scoring option for Efes as his ability to stretch the floor became a crucial factor in this matchup.

Together with switching, Milan often iced the pick&roll on the side. With Pleiss on the court, Efes had an easy way out. While opponents concentrated on guards, they simply let the German pop out and shoot open threes.

Against switch-all, he gave more diversity in how Efes attacked Milan. Finally, it wasn't only Larkin and Micic doing all the 1-on-1 work. With an insane height advantage under the basket, his deep seals and post-ups asked for double teams.

German is so tall that even two opponents weren't enough to bother him and make mistakes on kicking out the ball. And if the ball didn't arrive, he was just spacing out behind the 3-point line, where he is a much bigger threat than Dunston.

A total of 10 points in the first 2 games became 42 in Games 3 & 4 as Pleiss became the one and only big change Ataman made all series.

Game 4

In Game 4, Milan needed a small miracle to happen since their plan was all the same - play spread pick&rolls and look for opportunities on kick-outs when everyone concentrated on guards and Kyle Hines rolling to the rim.

Efes did that on purpose. They were okay with Ricci taking open shots or Chacho and Shields having to launch tough threes at the end of the shot clock.

As a result, Armani Exchange shot only 28% from deep. However, they stayed in the game until the last minutes due to their hustle on the boards - work on the offensive glass was a huge life-saver throughout the series for the Italian team. In Game 4, they grabbed 14 offensive rebounds.

In this duel, we also saw how important it could have been if Milan had all the players available. Gigi Datome came back sooner than expected and immediately was the No. 1 threat on the offense for Milanesi.

Just like Ataman with Pleiss, Datome was an additional scoring option for Messina, who could finally run some plays after timeouts for his shooter.

Too little too late. While Milan missed open shots all 40 minutes, Tibor Pleiss and Vasilije Micic didn't, and Ergin Ataman once again came out victorious.

Ergin Ataman shouldn't be that confident about the title yet. In the Final Four, they won't meet such injury-depleted teams as Armani were in this series.

And that means your opponents will have many more ways of exposing Efes' defensive weaknesses: the same open shots on pick&roll kick-outs, offensive rebounds, posting up through the bigs, and even playing with the basket to the basket against a dynamic duo, making them tired even more.

Obviously, Ataman and the Efes have the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card in Larkin and Micic, and since the semifinal and final are of 1 game only, so it might be just enough to go back-to-back this season again.

Full breakdown:

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