Olympiacos against Fener, the “air” of the homeland and Panathinaikos, who wants to change

The thriller was played to the end to complete the eight playoffs in this year’s EuroLeague. Panathinaikos threatened the passionate Partizan directly, Bayern almost caused a heart attack on Zalgiris, who seemed assured of qualification as they led by +10 points with 1:46 to go and suddenly saw Bayern catch up in a game with one possession (and three points).

Eventually he “stayed” and achieved a boyish qualification, winning only the last four races and taking the bite out of Baskonia’s mouth.

This combination of results put Fener in 8th place and finally on his way to Olympiakos. The probability of that happening was around…15%, but the Itudis team stumbled in the last month. He lost 5 in the last 7 games he played, dropped from 5th to 8th place and almost even missed the playoffs!

Yes, Fener is not the name Olympiacos would like to face in the playoffs. It has a budget of almost 30 million, a very experienced coach, extremely talented players and special weight. On the other hand her situation isn’t the best, she misses the injured Scotty Wilbekin a lot, she seems to be looking for her chemistry again and it’s doubtful she’ll be able to click and spin the chip and crank the revs up 10-12 Days when the playoffs begin.

The Turkish team is in a bad mood and will try to reverse the situation in the games against Olympiakos. However, it is not just in their own hands. The “Red-Whites” are the first and best in the regular season, there were very few ups and downs over the course of the year and now, as they say at SEF, it’s time to step on the gas again so that they can finally be part of the season can be Final Four (if they pass, they meet the winner of the Monaco-Maccabi derby).

Seating is a guarantee, but not to the absolute extent

Teams do not compete unfairly for home field advantage in the regular season. Obviously, it doesn’t a priori guarantee them qualification for the Final Fou, but it’s a first (and pretty serious) guarantee nonetheless. In the last five years, in which we’ve had the league with 16 and 18 teams, it’s usually the home advantage that ultimately ensures qualification for the top date.

✑ Last year Efes broke home base and threw out Milan, with Barcelona, ​​Real, Olympiaco having the advantage they went to Belgrade. The Turks had landed at No. 6 with another regular season, which they ultimately salvaged with a triumphant comeback in the playoffs and the Final Four that ended with their victory in the final against Real.

✑ In two seasons, the top four “suddenly” went into the Final Four. In 2020-21 Barcelona, ​​​​​​CSKA, Efes and Milan, who were at an advantage, traveled to Cologne, while the same happened in 2018-19 when Fener, CSKA, Real and Efes used their home ground and went to Vitoria and Fernando Buesa Arena.

✑ On the contrary, in 2018, again on the way to Belgrade, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos were eliminated from the Final Four despite the advantage. The “Red-Whites”, with almost half of their squad suffering from injuries, were knocked out 3-1 by Jasikevicius’ Zalgiris. With the same result, Real Madrid knocked out Panathinaikos, who remained in 5th place in a three-way draw with the two Greek teams.

✑ Panathinaikos also failed to capitalize on home advantage in 2017 when they were defeated 3-0 in the final against Olympiakos by Obradovics Fener, who were crowned European champions in Istanbul. The “Red-Whites” retained the lead, as did Real-CSKA, who also qualified for the Final Four.

As we wrote yesterday (14/4), Olympiacos usually passes when he has an advantage. In the 11 times he’s had an advantage, he’s gotten the ticket to eight final fou and he’s optimistic he’ll do the same this year in the bouts with Fener, which begin April 26 at SEF…

The old ones are (?) different

The final configuration of the playoffs, in addition to Olympiacos-Fener, also produced the following pairings: Barcelona-Zalgiris, Real-Partizan and Monaco-Maccabi. You could say we have the… old versus the young.

The established teams like Real, Barcelona and Maccabi, against sides who would certainly not be called favorites, although Monaco had shown their high ambitions since last year. The derby that the Monegasques are playing against Maccabi is possibly the most interesting one considering the specifics but also the similarities between the two teams.

Zalgiris, who has made an extra effort to get into the “8” (with the motivation of the Final Four organized in Kaunas), will make it difficult but hardly threaten the experienced and very practiced Barcelona, ​​while Partizan hides hidden ambitions against the queen Real. He relies on Obradovic’s know-how and the enthusiasm of an angry and young squad, but Real’s squad is overflowing with experience, quality and the size of Tavares.

Too good for Panathinaikos to lose

At the same time, Panathinaikos ended on a negative note (9-23, the removal of the two wins by EuroLeague decision for violating financial fair play rules) and perhaps his best performance of the competition in recent times. The “Greens” not only withstood the atmosphere of the overcrowded Stark Arena, but were even able to emerge victorious. They wanted little.

When Bacon didn’t end up trying to be a hero again by nailing the iron (!) by missing another game-winning or tying basket, Grigonis watched his pass to Ponitka in the phase that subsequently led to Nunnally’s three-pointer and The Victory of Partizan.

The Serbs celebrated wildly in a game they even lost by 18 points, with Panathinaikos turning the ball around well, looking for free shots and misses, playing some amazing defenses but ultimately losing on the detail. The “Greens” left satisfied, but also defeated. Whether they’ve gained strength for the Greek playoffs we’ll know in due course, as a couple of times this year a good performance has been followed by a crash…