Play-In, Round of 16 picture: Oostende traveling to BIH, PAOK to France

MIES (Switzerland) – With the Regular Season approaching its end, the picture for the next phase is getting clearer. We already know which group winners will play each other in the Round of 16, but what happens in the newly introduced Play-In Series?

Second- and third-placed teams from neighboring groups will be in the best-of-three series that will start on January 4. Neighboring groups means that teams from Group A are crossing paths with teams from Group B; teams from Group C are facing teams from Group D; teams from Group E are up against teams from Group F; and the same goes for teams from Group G and Group H.

Second-placed teams are considered seeded teams, meaning they get home-court advantage in the Play-In Series.

Play-In pairings as of December 29

What if the Regular Season ended today? We know that JDA Dijon are locked in second place in Group C, while VEF Riga are certain to finish third in Group D. We also know that Hapoel U-NET Holon will have home court advantage against Besiktas Icrypex.

Meanwhile, defending champs Hereda San Pablo Burgos are up against Darussafaka, while Nutribullet Treviso have at least a couple of games against Lavrio Megabolt.

After Igokea m:tel’s win over PAOK mateco, we also learned that the BIH team will have home court advantage against Filou Oostende, while PAOK are facing an uphill battle against SIG Strasbourg.

A2 Lenovo Tenerife* v B3 Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem
B2 Pinar Karsiyaka v A3 Prometey*

C2 JDA Dijon* v D3 VEF Riga*
D2 Nutribullet Treviso* v C3 Lavrio Megabolt*

E2 Igokea m:tel* v F3 Filou Oostende*
F2 SIG Strasbourg* v E3 PAOK mateco*

G2 Hapoel U-NET Holon* v H3 Besiktas Icrypex*
H2 Hereda San Pablo Burgos* v G3 Darussafaka*

*locked in their current spots

Round of 16 groups as of December 29

Group I

A1 MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg*
E1 Galatasaray Nef*
C2 JDA Dijon v D3 VEF Riga
G2 Hapoel U-NET Holon v H3 Besiktas Icrypex

Group J

B1 BAXI Manresa*
F1 Tofas Bursa*
D2 Nutribullet Treviso v C3 Lavrio Megabolt
H2 Hereda San Pablo Burgos v G3 Darussafaka

Group K

C1 Unicaja*
G1 U-BT Cluj Napoca*
B2 Pinar Karsiyaka v A3 Prometey
E2 Igokea m:tel v F3 Filou Oostende

Group L

D1 Falco Szombathely*
H1 Rytas Vilnius*
A2 Lenovo Tenerife v B3 Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem
F2 SIG Strasbourg v E3 PAOK mateco

*locked as group winners

The Round of 16 phase will be played in round robin, home and away, system from end of January to March. The first two teams in each group will qualify for the Quarter-Finals.

The Quarter-Finals will be played as best-of-3 series over the month of April, with the home advantage to the first-placed teams. The four winners will qualify for the Final Four.

A Final Four tournament will conclude the season. The four qualified teams will play over a weekend early May, with the Semi-Finals on Friday and the Finals on Sunday.