The reigning champion is still standing. On Saturday, at home, Paris Basket, pushed to Game 3 by Strasbourg, did the job at home. In the wake of a brilliant Nadir Hifi, author of 26 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals, the French champion in title pounced without fear, but without a flourish, his ticket to the final four of the Betclic Élite (89-75). On this singular day, where all of Paris had its head to Budapest, the Adidas Arena had drawn the black curtain on the upper ranks and invited the small afternoon crowd (3,500 spectators) to gather as close as possible to the game. The outgoing champion, established this Saturday for a Game 3, was not necessarily expected after the gala of Game 1 (+ 31). Not even at 1'20 of the end at Rhénus Thursday, when Paris still had five long shots in advance, before taking a 10-0 brutal. But, like last year, in the quarterfinals against Dijon, this was therefore the path of the No. 1 of the regular season. But the way was quickly opened by Parisians, intense in defense, very aggressive on the drive and fully in the game of rebounding. The outside trio, Rhoden, Robinson and Hifi, were biting into the Alsacian resistances. The SIG was shaken. All the more so that offensively, Marcus Keene and Mike Davis Jr, his fiery duo that had kept the Alsacian club alive two days ago (48 points at 9/17 at 3 points on Game 2), was this time watched a little more closely. Paris was escaping quickly (16-6, 5th). But, in the excitement, the champion was sometimes precipitating. The SIG, in search of its first semifinal of the championship since 2021, was slowly loosening the grip, by putting a little more rhythm in attack (32-27, 13th). But if the Julius Thomas team was not always clean in the game, it found in relay the sharpened second knives, such as Mouhamed Faye (10 points, 6 rebounds), whose verticality was precious at both ends of the field. ## Hifi on the gallop And then, in the middle of all this, the little prince of the capital, Nadir Hifi, galloped like a madman. Straight, full field, the best scorer of the League this season made a big mess (17 points at halftime, including 12 on 12 free throws), in a game where one was shooting quickly, from everywhere and not necessarily very well (16 on 63 3-pointers cumulated at the end of the game)! In this accelerated game, Paris is undoubtedly the strongest in France. With 13 long shots in advance at halftime (54-41), the hardest seemed to be done. The rest was not always great. At + 20 in the third quarter, Paris relaxed its vigilance, abandoned some balls. Keene and Davis Jr. (25 points each), they played them rather well and Strasbourg even came back to -9 with a little over three minutes to go (82-73). The warning was without cost, certainly. Paris did not tremble at the end. But the champion will probably have to show more rigor on the length, against ASVEL or Cholet in the semifinals, to stay on the right track.