2004–05 Euroleague

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

Key to colors
	Top five places in each group, plus highest-ranked sixth-place team, advance to Top 16
	Eliminated

Tiebreakers:

Head-to-head record in matches between the tied clubs
Overall point difference in games between the tied clubs
Overall point difference in all group matches (first tiebreaker if tied clubs are not in the same group)
Points scored in all group matches
Sum of quotients of points scored and points allowed in each group match

Group A

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Climamio Bologna	14	12	2	1199	11036	96
2.	Efes Pilsen	14	12	2	1080	934	145
3.	Cibona Zagreb	14	8	6	1172	1037	47
4.	Real Madrid	14	7	7	1056	1020	36
5.	Prokom Trefl Sopot	14	7	7	981	1028	-47
6.	Estudiantes Madrid	14	4	10	1074	1109	-35
7.	Olympiacos	14	4	10	1017	1144	-127
8.	Partizan Belgrade	14	2	12	1030	1146	-116

Group B

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Maccabi Tel Aviv	14	10	4	1324	1189	135
2.	FC Barcelona	14	9	5	1071	1045	26
3.	Žalgiris Kaunas	14	8	6	1185	1180	5
4.	AEK Athens	14	7	7	1102	1106	-4
5.	Montepaschi Siena	14	7	7	1105	1049	56
6.	Scavolini Pesaro	14	7	7	1116	1168	-52
7.	Olimpija Ljubljana	14	6	8	1040	1058	-18
8.	ASVEL Villeurbanne	14	2	12	973	1121	-148

Group C

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	CSKA Moscow	14	14	0	1191	1074	117
2.	Panathinaikos	14	8	6	1126	1061	65
3.	Benneton Treviso	14	8	6	1039	986	53
4.	Ülker Istanbul	14	7	7	1030	987	43
5.	TAU Cerámica	14	6	8	1149	1146	3
6.	Unicaja Málaga	14	6	8	1030	1024	6
7.	Frankfurt Skyliners	14	4	10	996	1137	-141
8.	Pau-Orthez	14	3	11	1070	1216	-146

Top 16

The draw was held in accordance with Euroleague rules.

The teams were placed into four pools, as follows:

Level 1: The three group winners, plus the top-ranked second-place team
- CSKA, Climamio, Maccabi, Efes Pilsen
Level 2: The remaining second-place teams, plus the top two third-place teams
- Winterthur FCB, Panathinaikos ,Benetton , Cibona
Level 3: The remaining third-place team, plus the three fourth-place teams
- Žalgiris, Ülker Istanbul, Real Madrid ,AEK Athens
Level 4: The fifth-place teams, plus the top ranked sixth-place team
- TAU Cerámica, Montepaschi Siena, Prokom Trefl Sopot, Scavolini Pesaro

Each Top 16 group included one team from each pool. The draw was conducted under the following restrictions:

No more than two teams from the same Regular Season group can be placed in the same Top 16 group.
No more than two teams from the same country can be placed in the same Top 16 group.
If there is a conflict between these two restrictions, (1) will receive priority.

Another draw was held to determine the order of fixtures. In cases of two teams from the same city in the Top 16 (Panathinaikos and Olympiacos, Efes Pilsen and Ülker) they were scheduled so that every week only one team would be at home.

Key to colors
	Top two places in each group advance to quarterfinals
	Eliminated from contention

Teams in bold type advanced to the quarterfinals.

Group D

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Maccabi Tel Aviv	6	6	0	513	427	+86
2.	Ülker Istanbul	6	3	3	434	469	-35
3.	Montepaschi Siena	6	2	4	470	462	+8
4.	Cibona Zagreb	6	1	5	430	489	−59

Group E

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	CSKA Moscow	6	5	1	515	450	+65
2.	Scavolini Pesaro	6	3	3	467	492	-25
3.	FC Barcelona	6	2	4	463	478	−15
4.	Real Madrid	6	2	4	477	502	−25

Group F

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Panathinaikos Athens	6	4	2	480	450	+30
2.	TAU Cerámica	6	4	2	526	483	+43
3.	Climamio Bologna	6	4	2	471	479	−8
4.	Žalgiris Kaunas	6	0	6	457	522	−65

Group G

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Benneton Treviso	6	4	2	447	385	+62
2.	Efes Pilsen	6	4	2	424	377	+47
3.	AEK Athens	6	4	2	436	427	+9
4.	Prokom Trefl Sopot	6	0	6	387	505	−118

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

	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Date
Game 1	Maccabi Tel Aviv	88 - 60	Scavolini Pesaro	Tel Aviv	April 5, 2005
Game 2	Scavolini Pesaro	100 - 103	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Pesaro	April 7, 2005

Quarterfinal 2

	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Date
Game 1	CSKA Moscow	88 - 74	Ülker Istanbul	Moscow	April 5, 2005
Game 2	Ülker Istanbul	64 - 82	CSKA Moscow	Istanbul	April 7, 2005

Quarterfinal 3

	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Date
Game 1	Panathinaikos	102 - 96	Efes Pilsen	Athens	April 6, 2005
Game 2	Efes Pilsen	75 - 63	Panathinaikos	Istanbul	April 8, 2005
Game 3	Panathinaikos	84 - 76	Efes Pilsen	Athens	April 14, 2005