Kibirkstis did much more than simply take care of business against ENEA AZS Politechnika Poznan.

The Lithuanian side won 91-69, had five players score in double figures and received 35 bench points compared with only five from Poznan. Nausia Woolfolk controlled the game with 11 points and 11 assists, while Niyah Becker produced 18 points, nine rebounds, five assists and four steals. Zoe Wadoux added 21 points by making seven threes, and Dominyka Paliulytė hit another five from deep.

Kibirkstis finished 16-of-35 from three, but the encouraging part was that the offense did not depend on one scorer catching fire. The ball consistently reached the next advantage.

Against Sopron, the more repeatable element is not making 16 threes. It is how those shots were created.

Pace becomes especially important. Sopron has long placed enormous value on organized, physical defense, so one of the worst outcomes for Kibirkstis would be repeatedly walking into a fully established half-court shell.

The Lithuanians should push after misses, advance the ball early and make Sopron defend before every matchup and help position is set. Woolfolk’s pick-and-roll creation becomes even more important here. She had 11 assists against Poznan with only one turnover, and Kibirkstis will need the same balance between aggression and control.

The frontcourt offers another possible advantage.

Sopron is physical but not overwhelmingly large across its primary interior rotation. Zsuzsanna Sitku brings size at 193 cm, while Nneka Ezeigbo and Maša Janković are more undersized, physical frontcourt players. Kibirkstis should test whether it can generate deeper catches and extra possessions rather than allowing this to become exclusively a perimeter game.

Sopron will ask very different questions at the other end. The ball moves, actions flow into one another and Zala Friskovec gives them a proven perimeter scoring option.

The uncertainty appears when those actions no longer create something clean.

Who consistently breaks down a set defense with eight seconds left?

That is where Kibirkstis may have the small edge.

The semifinal also showed that Woolfolk does not need to dominate the scoring column for this offense to function. Her manipulation of the defense, Becker’s versatility and the shooting around them can create good possessions in several different ways.

Home court matters. Sopron has a clear identity and will be comfortable if this becomes a physical half-court game.

We still slightly prefer the visitors.

Crvena Zvezda’s semifinal against Žabiny Brno was not always attractive basketball.

It did not need to be.

The Serbian side won 75-69, with its defense repeatedly disrupting Brno before the offense could reach what it wanted. Žabiny committed 16 turnovers, 12 of them coming directly from Zvezda steals, but the deflections and closed passing lanes mattered just as much as the possessions that appeared in the box score.

That same pressure should define the game in Miskolc.

Zvezda does not need a steal on every possession. If Nina Aho is forced to initiate farther from the basket, passing windows disappear half a second earlier and DVTK begins actions with less time on the clock, the defense has already done its job.

That becomes particularly important against a Hungarian roster that has lost the four leading scorers from last season’s EuroLeague campaign. Réka Lelik, Kathryn Westbeld, Monika Grigalauskytė and Paula Ginzo are all gone, leaving a younger group still searching for its offensive hierarchy.

Aho should carry much of the organizational responsibility. She is a good guard and already showed she can distribute at this level, but she is not naturally the kind of first option who consistently creates an advantage from nothing.

That is the opening Zvezda should try to exploit.

DVTK can counter physically.

Bella Smuda gives them a 198 cm center, while Nicole Enabosi adds another strong interior presence. Zvezda will not simply overwhelm this frontcourt with size, which makes limiting Artemis Spanou especially important.

Spanou had an inefficient scoring night against Žabiny but still finished with 11 rebounds and five assists. That is why her influence cannot be reduced to shooting. She can facilitate, rebound, punish mismatches and connect the perimeter game to the interior.

Destanni Henderson gave Zvezda another dimension in the semifinal with 18 points and eight assists, while Savannah Wilkinson and Aliyah Collier each produced double-doubles. DVTK cannot simply load its defense toward Spanou and expect the rest of the offense to disappear.

We expect the Hungarian side to make this uncomfortable. It has home court, size and enough defensive energy to keep the game close.

The bigger question is which team can manufacture a good possession when nothing comes easily.

We trust Zvezda’s collection of creators more.

Emlak Konut did not simply win in Athens.

It removed the competitive tension almost immediately.

Panathinaikos scored three points in the entire first quarter, while Emlak scored 26. The Turkish side eventually won 91-68, led by 19 points apiece from Stephanie Mavunga and Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah, 18 from Lindsay Allen and a near triple-double from Réka Lelik with 10 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds.

The opening quarter was the most instructive part.

Emlak was extremely physical away from the ball. Panathinaikos struggled simply to get through its screening actions with the timing it wanted, disrupting the offense before the ball-handler even reached the decisive read.

Girona should be much harder to derail that way.

The Spanish side wants tempo, but not simply for the sake of taking the first available shot. Its best possessions can begin with an advantage six seconds into the clock and keep flowing until the defense finally breaks.

Iyana Martín is the key to that process.

She is not only capable of creating the first advantage. She recognizes the next one extremely quickly. Martín can turn the corner herself, manipulate the low defender and make the pass, or move the ball before the help has fully committed.

With Queralt Casas, Madison Conner, Juana Camilión and Tilbe Şenyürek around her, Girona has multiple players capable of continuing the possession rather than requiring Martín to finish everything she starts.

That forces Emlak to remain connected through more than the first action. The same physicality that overwhelmed Panathinaikos will matter, but Girona is better equipped to keep playing after the defense initially disrupts the set.

Emlak’s offense also showed something in Athens that Girona has to prepare for carefully.

Its empty-side pick-and-roll flowing into a middle pick-and-roll created repeated advantages by forcing the defense to solve two connected problems. The first action shifted the help, then Allen or Lelik attacked a second configuration against a defense that was already rotating.

Girona cannot defend those ball screens as separate events.

Lelik is especially dangerous on the second side because she does not need to dominate the ball to create. Allen can manipulate the first action, while Lelik attacks what remains.

There is also enough interior strength to punish Girona if the perimeter defense becomes too aggressive. Mavunga and Kunaiyi-Akpanah combined for 38 points in Athens, giving Emlak another route when the guards force help.

This should be considerably more difficult than the semifinal.

Girona has more creation, more players comfortable making decisions after the defense has moved and one of the best young guards in world basketball controlling the game.

Emlak just showed that assuming anything in a one-game qualifier can be dangerous.

We still believe Girona has the broader set of answers.

Flammes Carolo’s 101-81 win over KP Brno showed almost everything there is to like about the French side.

Four players scored at least 15 points: Tiffany Clarke had 21, Vaciana Gomis 20, Koi Love 19 and Coline Franchelin 15. Flammes also finished with 31 assists, including eight each from Franchelin and Julie Pospíšilová.

This was not an offense depending on one player repeatedly winning a matchup. The ball moved, multiple players created and Flammes consistently found the next shot.

There was also one area Venezia should examine closely.

KP collected nine offensive rebounds despite being comprehensively outplayed. That is not catastrophic on its own, but it continues a weakness Flammes has shown before: defensive possessions are not always finished cleanly enough on the glass.

Venezia has the personnel to test that.

Lorela Cubaj is one of Reyer’s strongest physical presences inside, while Marena Whittle and Alyssa Ustby add more rebounding and positional size around a redesigned frontcourt.

We should expect Andrea Mazzon to selectively attack the offensive glass when the matchups allow it.

Selectively is important.

Flammes is too dangerous in transition for Venezia to send everyone after every miss. The Italians need to identify where the rebounding advantage exists without sacrificing floor balance.

Flammes creates a different problem through its half-court variety.

Pick-and-roll is a major part of the offense, but it does not define everything. Off-ball screening, post touches and quick continuation after the first advantage make the French side difficult to load up against. Pospíšilová gives them another large perimeter creator, while Love and Clarke can punish a defense once it has been moved.

That places significant responsibility on Matilde Villa.

Villa should have a much larger role for Venezia this season, and her ability to create separation and reach the paint gives the offense another dimension.

The important part comes after she gets there.

Flammes will bring help, crowd driving lanes and pressure the ball. Villa’s decision-making between finishing herself, finding the rolling big or kicking to the weak side may define how far Venezia’s offense can progress this season.

She will not be doing it alone.

Ivana Dojkić, Mariella Santucci, Francesca Pasa and Francesca Pan return from last year’s group, giving Venezia important continuity around a frontcourt that looks different from the one that reached the Final Six.

That experience should matter in a one-game setting.

Mazzon’s teams are comfortable making opponent-specific adjustments, and having a full week to prepare should help a roster with this amount of versatility.

Flammes is too good for this to be comfortable. The French side has continuity, multiple creators and enough defensive aggression to turn stretches of the game into exactly the kind of messy basketball that can make a qualifier dangerous.

Venezia simply has more ways to respond.

The semifinals already reminded us how quickly a qualifier can move away from expectation.

Crvena Zvezda eliminated the team we had picked to win Path 2. Emlak Konut went to Athens for what looked like one of the closest semifinals and led by 23 after 10 minutes. Kibirkstis turned its game against Poznan into a shooting exhibition, while Flammes produced 101 points with 31 assists.

Now the margin becomes even smaller.

Sopron’s defense can force Kibirkstis into a slower game. DVTK has enough size to prevent Zvezda from simply imposing itself physically. Emlak just showed how destructive its defense can become, while Flammes arrives in Venice having produced one of the best offensive performances of the semifinals.

Our picks remain Kibirkstis-TOKS, KKZ Crvena Zvezda, Spar Girona and Umana Reyer Venezia.

Four games will decide whether we got them right.