Game 3 of the 7DAYS EuroCup Semifinals will go down in history as the highest-scoring non-overtime playoff game to date in either competition organized by Euroleague Basketball since 2000.
The final score of 100-107 not only saw UNICS Kazan returned to the EuroCup Finals seven years after its last appearance, become the first team to win a Semifinals Game 3 on the road, and earn the right to play in the 2021-22 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
The combined total of 207 points between UNICS and Virtus amounted to the most that have fallen in any non-overtime playoff game in either the EuroCup or the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague this century.
Indeed, they exceeded the scoring total of any Euroleague Basketball playoff game this century except for one double-overtime eighthfinals EuroCup game between Aris Thessaloniki and Panionios back in 2006, which ended 112-105 after 50 minutes but featured at least 24 points by each team after regulation time.
By pouring in 107 points in 40 minutes, UNICS tied the scoring record in any non-overtime game ever at the quarterfinal stage or later in the EuroCup or the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. That accomplishment is shared by Hemofarm Vrsac, which downed Makedonikos Kozani 107-84 in the first leg of the two-game 2004-05 semifinals. Interestingly, Makedonikos bounced back to win 96-65 win in Game 2 to reach that season's championship game on an aggregate score of 180-172. As such, UNICS now possesses the highest scoring ever produced in a do-or-die non-overtime playoff game this century.
Since best-of-three playoffs were introduced to the EuroCup in the 2016-17 season, only two teams had broken the 100-point barrier before UNICS and Virtus did it together. ALBA Berlin hit the century mark twice in 2019, downing Unicaja Malaga 81-101 in Game 2 of the quarterfinals and MoraBanc Andorra 102-97 in Game 1 of the semifinals. Before UNICS on Wednesday, Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia had held the previous scoring mark in a 105-99 home win over Zenit St Petersburg in Game 3 of their 2017-18 quarterfinal series.
UNICS's 107 points tie the most for any team at this stage, and no other squad had scored that many points in a EuroCup semifinal in over 16 years.
The competition's all-time combined scoring record, of course, took place on December 4, 2007, as ALBA Berlin downed Bosna Sarajevo 141-127 after five overtimes in a classic. Those teams combined for 268 points that night!
Coincidentally, in the EuroLeague, the most points by any one team in a playoffs game was by Virtus in the 2001 eighthfinals, beating Adecco Estudiantes 113-70 on its way to that season's title. The most points by two teams were 203, when Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated host Scavolini Pesaro 103-100 in Game 2 of the 2004-05 playoffs.
One record UNICS does not have to share is playoff scoring in a non-overtime game by any road team in either competition's history. Its 107 points surpassed the previous mark by Anadolu Efes Istanbul in the 2018-19 EuroLeague Playoffs, when it won 68-102 at FC Barcelona's court.
UNICS hosts Game 1 of the best-of-three EuroCup Finals against AS Monaco at Basket Hall Kazan on April 27, 2021.