The first week of fixtures on 5 October 1985 included a game in Zagreb at Dom Sportova's small hall between Cibona and visiting Smelt Olimpija—a contest that would go down in history for Dražen Petrović's Yugoslav Basketball League single-game scoring record as well as the strange circumstance that allowed it to happen.
Due to Olimpija general manager Radovan Lorbek reportedly being late with submitting a registration letter to the Yugoslav Basketball Federation (KSJ) headquarters in Belgrade, the visiting team failed to fulfill their player-registration administrative obligations in time, rendering their entire first team roster ineligible for the regular season opening game.
[1][2] Cibona for their part decided to send out a mixed roster consisting of players from their youth system plus their twenty-one-year-old superstar Dražen Petrović who used the opportunity of playing against inferior opposition to shatter Radivoj Korać's single-game Yugoslav League scoring record from 1962 when Korać scored 74 points for OKK Beograd versus Mladost Zagreb.
[1] Cibona dominated the regular season with only a single loss in the entire campaign, thus equaling the feat that had previously been managed only twice in Yugoslav League history — Zadar in 1974–75 and Crvena Zvezda in 1949.
Cibona dominated the opening game of the final series on its home court with strong outside shooting — behind Dražen Petrović's 28 points, Danko Cvjetićanin's 22, and Sven Ušić's 16.
Receiving balanced scoring from its roster — Petar Popović and Veljko Petranović with 15 points each, Ante Matulović with 14, Draženko Blažević 12, Darko Pahlić 11, and Ivica Obad 10 — Zadar's win was never in question.
[29][30] With the best-of-three series tied at one apiece, the deciding game 3 was played on Cibona's home court, Dom Sportova, on Saturday, 26 April 1986.
[29] Supported by over 10,000 fans, despite plenty of nervy play from the home team (Dražen Petrović getting a technical for accosting the referee and Franjo Arapović getting ejected for striking Darko Pahlić),[3] Cibona had the early lead behind Cvjetićanin's scoring (got 22 of Cibona's 42 first half points) while Dražen Petrović, who returned to the squad after controversially sitting out game two, also scored actively.
[29] Still, Zadar kept chasing with most of its first half points coming from their twenty-six-year-old captain Veljko Petranović and twenty-two-year-old center Stojko Vranković.