France's Heurtel takes center stage once again

ISTANBUL (Euroleague) - Thomas Heurtel can't stay out of the limelight.

Though he hails from France, a country of NBA stars, he is proving to be just as effective as any of his compatriots in the important games.

His latest opportunity to prove how accomplished he has become as a top-flight point guard is on Thursday night when he travels with his Anadolu Efes teammates across Istanbul to face city rivals Fenerbahce Ulker in a must-win Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top 16 game for the visitors.

If Anadolu Efes lose, the team Heurtel started the year with, Laboral Kutxa, can leapfrog them into fourth place in Group F but only with a victory at Unicaja Malaga.

When one thinks of French point guards, the first name that comes to mind is 32-year-old Tony Parker, the four-time NBA champion of the San Antonio Spurs.

Parker was the MVP of EuroBasket 2013 in Slovenia after leading France to the their first title in that competition.

But Heurtel has been proving ever since that he is also a capable floor general, one that not only directs the offense and makes terrific passes but also creates off the dribble or makes big jump shots.

If there were questions about how good Heurtel could become before last year's FIBA Basketball World Cup, there were none following some sublime performances from the player who turns 26 on Friday.

His most important performance of all came against tournament hosts Spain in the Quarter-Finals.

Heurtel, who hails from Beziers, France, ended up averaging 9.7 points per game on a star-studded French team, though in his last five outings, that number shot up to 12.6 points.

When he returned to Laboral Kutxa in Vitoria, where he had spent the previous three campaigns, Heurtel did so with a more respect from not only the fans in the Basque country but basketball people all over Spain and Europe.

When the opportunity arrived for Anadolu Efes to sign him in December, they jumped at the chance.

Heurtel quickly slotted into Dusan Ivkovic's rotation and led the club to its first major honor of the season, the Turkish Cup.

He was the MVP of that event, one in which Anadolu Efes defeated Fener in the Final.

Heurtel is the ideal person to have on the floor on Thursday night when considering the pre-game comments by Ivkovic ahead of the Fenerbahce clash.

"We absolutely must be focused on the game parameters like concentration, control of the game and good communication both offensively and defensively," Ivkovic said.

We will need extra attention for 40 minutes and want to win this game to qualify for the playoffs - Ivkovic

Though Fenerbahce punched their ticket to the play-offs earlier in the Top 16, they are facing some adversity following the loss of star guard Ricky Hickman to a ruptured Achilles at the end of March.

Hickman, a Georgia international who helped Maccabi Tel Aviv win last season's Euroleague, was a vital part of the Fenerbahce attack and was playing his best basketball of the season when he got hurt in a home game against Unicaja Malaga.

In their first game without him, Fenerbahce crashed to a 93-76 defeat at Laboral Kutxa so Zeljko Obradovic's team needs to get the feel-good factor bad before the play-offs and can do that with an impressive showing against their Turkish opponents.

The team hoping that Anadolu Efes fail at Fener is Heurtel's former team, Laboral Kutxa.

If it wins at Unicaja Malaga and Anadolu Efes fall, then Laboral Kutxa will advance to the play-offs as the fourth best team in Group F.

Ibon Navarro, who has been tremendous in his first season as a Euroleague head coach at Laboral Kutxa, said: "We know our fate is not in our hands, but we do know that beating Unicaja depends on ourselves."

What made the win over Fenerbahce for Navarro's team all the more impressive was the fact that it came after the loss of their Latvia international Davis Bertans to a serious knee injury.

In Group E, Maccabi Tel Aviv are in third place going into their game at fifth-place Alba Berlin, while Panathinaikos are in fourth as they head to already eliminated Crvena Zvezda.

Should Alba win at home over the defending champions, they will finish third themselves and Panathinaikos would finish fourth but only with a victory over Crvena Zvezda.

Maccabi can lose and still finish fourth if Panathinaikos were also to fall.

FIBA