Efes 88-82 Lokomotiv: Mike James Scores 27 and Seals the VTB SuperCup With a Four-Point Play at 13 Seconds

Thirteen seconds on the clock. Anadolu Efes led 84-82. Mike James caught the ball beyond the three-point line, rose, and the ball went through as the whistle sounded. Three points plus a free throw. The score froze at 88-82, and the VTB United League SuperCup belonged to Anadolu Efes. That four-point play was the last line in a box score James had been writing all night: 27 points and the tournament MVP award.

I rewatched the closing sequence four times, and every time I stopped on the frame before James raised the ball. Lokomotiv Kuban chose to guard him at roughly two metres, no switch, no tactical foul. That is a decision you can defend with probability theory, until James turns it into a mistake. Based on my experience tracking EuroLeague games across multiple seasons, James belongs to a very small group of guards capable of manufacturing a four-point play at exactly 13 seconds, when the defence already knows what he intends to do.

Anadolu Efes won the VTB United League SuperCup with an 88-82 victory over Lokomotiv Kuban. Mike James scored 27 points and was named tournament MVP. Dario Saric added 15 points and six rebounds. For Lokomotiv Kuban, Aleksej Pokusevski and Maksim Barashkov scored 20 points each. In the third-place game, CSKA Moscow beat UNICS Kazan 79-59. Igokea defeated Zenit St. Petersburg 83-79.

The VTB United League SuperCup is the traditional curtain-raiser for Russian basketball, staged before the domestic season begins. This edition gathered four Russian clubs, CSKA Moscow, Zenit St. Petersburg, UNICS Kazan and Lokomotiv Kuban, alongside two guests, Anadolu Efes of Turkey and Igokea of Bosnia. The other two results framed the final: CSKA crushed UNICS by 20, while Igokea edged Zenit. A EuroLeague side stood opposite a VTB club still rebuilding, in a tournament whose results carry reference value only.

What stands out is how the two teams divided their scoring. Lokomotiv Kuban got 40 of their 82 points from two homegrown players: Pokusevski and Barashkov, 20 each. That is 48.8 percent of the team's offensive output. Efes were not structurally different: James with 27 and Saric with 15 add up to 42 of 88 points, or 47.7 percent. The two ratios are nearly identical, yet the result differed by four points. The difference was not in how the points were distributed, but in the fact that one side had someone to close the final quarter and the other did not. That is a difference box scores cannot measure but spreadsheets can: late-game success rate, possessions ended by a contested shot, forced switches.

James played a game that his point total does not fully describe. His 27 points came from a range of situations: pull-ups off screens, attempts from beyond eight metres, and, in the final quarter, possessions Efes deliberately slowed down so he could operate alone. The four-point play at 13 seconds was no random moment. It was the final product of a habit: when the game enters the last two minutes with the margin under five, the ball goes to James, and Efes's offence becomes a one-man system.

Saric served as the counterweight inside. Fifteen points and six rebounds are not a large number, but they arrived at moments when Efes needed an anchor. From my years of reading box scores, the value of a big man in exhibition tournaments is routinely misread: people count points, when what matters is how often he forces the opposing defence to choose between helping inside and covering the perimeter. Saric drew attention around the rim, and that space was the precondition for James's final shot.

Spreadsheets do not lie — only the people too lazy to read them fool themselves.

On the other side, both 20-point scorers for Lokomotiv Kuban belong to the young, internally developed group. Pokusevski was once regarded as one of European basketball's brightest prospects, played in the NBA amid heavy expectations, then was swept through several team changes. Barashkov is a newer name to most followers of European basketball. The two combining for 40 points in a final means more than one line of statistics. It shows Lokomotiv Kuban are choosing internal development over signing stars, and in a league cut off from much of the European basketball ecosystem, that path is the financially sensible one.

One thing most scoreline reports skip needs to be said plainly: this is the SuperCup, a preseason exhibition. Teams arrive with three to four weeks of practice behind them, rosters still open, new contracts unsigned, and coaches unwilling to reveal real tactical plans. A 20-point margin in CSKA's 79-59 win over UNICS, or Igokea beating Zenit 83-79, shows how wide the error bars are in this kind of tournament. Using SuperCup results to predict the EuroLeague is a familiar mistake, and I have watched it repeat often enough across nine years of reading spreadsheets not to make it again.

But one signal is not noise. Anadolu Efes were still persuaded to play a tournament organised by the VTB United League, at a time when Russian clubs are excluded from European competition. A current EuroLeague side bringing its main rotation to Moscow goes beyond prize money. It says the friendly channel between Russian basketball and the rest of Europe remains open at club level, even though it is closed at national-team level. That is the kind of fact that appears in no box score, and exactly the kind of context I always remind myself to place beside the numbers.

Data does not cut across the story — it tells a different one, and it is rarely wrong.

Looking at the final quarter, Lokomotiv Kuban lost on two decisions. First, they did not foul before James entered his shooting motion, when two free throws would still have kept the game within reach. Second, they let James catch on the wing without pushing him further beyond the arc. Both were foreseeable tactical errors, and both belong to the category a team short on continental experience tends to commit. Lokomotiv Kuban have a young roster, played well for 39 minutes, and paid at second 40.

For Efes, the more troubling question lies in the rest of the season. A team placing 47.7 percent of its offence in two players will win plenty of exhibitions, but against EuroLeague defences in a congested schedule, that distribution becomes an exposed weakness. James scoring 27 is good news for Efes today. It becomes bad news if his number looks the same in January and Efes still have not found a reliable third scorer.

Notably, both 20-point scorers for Lokomotiv Kuban are big men, while Efes let James operate from outside. European basketball has trended for years toward teams with multiple threats beyond the arc, but a final like this reminds us that the interior still decides when the clock runs down. Lokomotiv Kuban had two big men playing well and still lost, because they had nobody to catch the ball at second 13.

I trust data more than people — because people know how to lie, while data only knows how to be wrong.

If one forecast must be drawn from this game, I bet on structure, not emotion. Efes will open the EuroLeague season with James at the centre, and their success rate will depend on whether Saric holds the anchor role for 25 minutes a night. Lokomotiv Kuban will perform better domestically, where the pace is slower and opponents lack guards of James's class. And James, at this age and in this role, will keep forcing every defence to choose between two bad options.

The four-point play at 13 seconds was no miracle. It was the product of a system that allows one man to hold the ball, a defence that chose not to foul, and a coach who trusts probability more than circumstance. Three decisions, not one moment. That is also why I keep the habit of reopening the box score after every big game: to judge decisions, not the shot.