The Euroleague is an international basketball club competition for elite clubs throughout Europe. The 2004-2005 season featured 24 competing teams from 13 different countries. The final of the competition was held in Olimpiisky Arena, Moscow, Russia, with defending champions Maccabi Tel Aviv defeating TAU Cerámica 90-78.

Format

Regular season

The first phase is a regular season, in which the competing teams are drawn into three groups, each containing eight teams. Each team plays every other team in its group at home and away, resulting in 14 games for each team in the first stage. The top 5 teams in each group and the best sixth-placed team advance to the next round. The complete list of tiebreakers is provided in the lead-in to the Regular Season results.

Top 16

The surviving teams are divided into four groups of four teams each, and again a round robin system is adopted resulting in 6 games each, with the top 2 teams advancing to the quarterfinals. Tiebreakers are identical to those used in the Regular Season.

Quarterfinals

This was the first season in which the Euroleague instituted a quarterfinal phase. The top placed teams from each Top 16 group played second-placed teams from a different group in a best-of-three playoff series, with the winners of those series advancing to the Final Four.

Final Four

The culminating stage of the Euroleague in which the four remaining teams play a semifinal match and the winners of those advance to the final. The losers play in a third-place playoff. The team which is victorious in the Final will be Euroleague champion.

Regular Season

Group C

Group E

Quarterfinals

Each quarterfinal was a best-of-three series between a first-place team in the Top 16 and a second-place team from a different group, with the first-place team receiving home advantage.

Quarterfinal 1

Quarterfinal 4

Third Place

Awards

Regular Season MVP

* )

Final Four MVP

* )

All Euroleague First Team 2004-05

* )
* )
* )
* )
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All Euroleague Second Team 2004-2005

*flagicon|Slovenia Jaka Lakovič ( flagicon|Greece Panathinaikos) )
*flagicon|USA Marcus Brown ( flagicon|RUS CSKA Moscow )
*flagicon|USA Charles Smith ( flagicon|Italy Scavolini Pesaro )
*flagicon|Argentina Luis Scola ( flagicon|Spain TAU Ceramica )
*flagicon|USA Tanoka Beard ( flagicon|Lithuania Zalgiris Kaunas )

Rising Star

* )

Best Defender

* )

Alphonso Ford Top Scorer

*flagicon|USA Charles Smith ( flagicon|Italy Scavolini Pesaro )

Alexander Gomelsky Coach of the Year

*flagicon|Israel Pini Gershon ( flagicon|Israel Maccabi Tel Aviv )

Club Executive of the Year

*flagicon|Spain Jose Antonio Querejeta ( flagicon|Spain TAU Ceramica )

Notes and references

[http://www.euroleague.net/competition/format Euroleague Competition Format]

External links

* [http://www.euroleague.net/ Euroleague.net] - Official Euroleague homepage.
* [http://www.eurobasket.com/ Eurobasket.com] - Popular basketball news site.
* [http://www.talkbasket.net/forums/ TalkBasket.net] - Basketball forum.