About the lap end

The 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season finishes this week and with four spots still available in thre groups, everything can happen. When the dust settles on Thursday night, 16 teams will keep fighting for Euroleague glory, others will leave the competition and everything will be ready for the Top 16 Draw, which takes place in Barcelona, Spain on Wednesday, December 28. Action starts with six games on Wednesday and an unified scheduled per group. At 20:00 CET, all Group B teams take center stage, as Unicaja (4-5) hosts CSKA (9-0), Panathinaikos (6-3) welcomes Brose Baskets (3-6) and KK Zagreb Croatia Osiguranje (2-7) visits Zalgiris (3-6). CSKA and Panathinaikos and first and second, respectively. Zagreb will advance if it wins and Panathinaikos beats Brose Baskets. Unicaja will be third if it wins or if Panathinaikos wins. Zalgiris goes through with a win - it will be third if Brose and CSKA also win, fourth in any other case as long as it wants - and out if it loses. Brose needs to win in Athens and Zagreb to beat Zalgiris in Kaunas in order to advance - third if CSKA wins, fourth if Unicaja wins. All Group D games take place at 20:45 CET, FC Barcelona Regal (8-1) vs. Galatasaray Medical Park (4-5), Asseco Prokom Gdynia (1-8) vs. Montepaschi Siena (7-2) and Union Olimpija (1-8) vs. Unics (6-3). Barcelona, Montepaschi, Unics and Galatasaray, strictly in that order, have advanced to the Top 16. All other six games are expected on Thursday. In Group C, Anadolu Efes (5-4) hosts Real Madrid (7-2) at 18:45 CET while Partizan mt:s (4-5) welcomes EA7 Emporio Armani (3-6) and Maccabi Electra (6-3) visits Belgacom Spirou (2-7) at 20:45 CET. Madrid, Maccabi and Efes are first to third in this group no matter what. Partizan and Milano will battle for fourth place in an outstanding showdown. Partizan goes through if it wins or even if it loses by up to 3 points. A four-point win - or better - would send Armani to the Top 16.The big battle in Group A takes place at 20:00 CET with three critical games: Gescrap BB (4-5) vs. Caja Laboral (5-4), SLUC Nancy (3-6) vs. Olympiacos (5-4) and Bennet Cantu (5-4)vs. Fenerbahce Ulker (5-4). Olympiacos and Cantu have qualified to the Top 16. Olympiacos will be first or second with a win. Cantu can go anywhere from first to fourth. Incredibly enough, it could be second if it loses and third if it wins depending on other scores. Laboral will be first or second if it wins, third or fourth if it loses and Cantu wins, and out if it loses and Cantu loses. FB Ulker will qualify with a win and become the Group A champion if it wins and Gescrap beats Laboral. A loss combined to Laboral's win in Bilbao, however, would send FB Ulker home. Gescrap will be out if it loses and will qualify with a win - it would even be second combined with wins by Nancy and FB Ulker. Putting it simple, Cantu and Olympiacos are through, Laboral, Fener and Gescrap get to the next round with a win while Nancy is out of the Top 16 race. It will be a very exciting week of Euroleague Basketball, so make sure you sit back, relax - if you can! - and enjoy it on Euroleague.net and Euroleague TV!