By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The wait is over and it’s time for the biggest moments of the season. Kaunas is hosting the 2023 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final For, the event is being played for the first time in Lithuania and two big games are coming.
Olympiacos will compete against Monaco at 17.00 CET and then Real Madrid vs Barcelona follow at 20.00 CET.
Those are the games you don’t want to miss and after coach Sergio Scariolo’s analysis for Eurohoops, here’s the story of the two semifinals.
Olympiacos vs Monaco
Monaco and Olympiacos never met before the start of last season, but this will be the 10th game between them with Monaco leading 5-4 so far.
This season, Monaco has so far two wins against the Greeks. In Round 18, Monaco held off Olympiacos 64-60 with Mike James scoring 19 and Alpha Diallo 16 points. In Round 5 in Piraeus, Monaco held on for a 76-81 win over Olympiacos behind 23 points from Elie Okobo.
This is a rematch of the 2022 playoff series, in which Olympiacos won 3-2. Olympiacos won Games 1 and 3, while Monaco took Games 2 and 4.
In the deciding fifth game, Olympiacos rallied to pull out a 94-88 win with Shaquielle McKissic scoring 18 points.
Monaco guard Mike James recorded a career-high 5 steals playing for Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz against Olympiacos in March 2015.
Barcelona vs Real Madrid
This clash is the 34th Clásico in the EuroLeague this century; Barcelona leads with a 17-16 record in those games.
Barcelona and Real Madrid have met in the EuroLeague Final Four Semifinals on four other occasions. The first was in 1996 when Barcelona won 76-66 in Paris behind 24 points from Arturas Karnisovas. Real was victorious 67-74 in London in 2013 thanks to 17 points from Felipe Reyes.
The following season, Real routed Barcelona 62-100 in Milan, where Sergio Rodriguez starred with 21 points. And last year, Real Madrid prevailed 86-83 over Barcelona with Fabien Causeur and Guershon Yabusele scoring 18 points each. Yabusele is out of this year’s game due to his suspension.
Two teams split home wins this regular season. Barcelona held off Real 75-73 in Round 2 led by Sertac Sanli’s 14 points. Real edged Barcelona 91-86 in overtime in Round 21 with Gabriel Deck collecting 23 points and 7 rebounds for a career-best PIR of 33.
Deck is also expected to miss the Final Four, due to injury, and one more big man, Vincent Poirier is expected to be out, while Barcelona is missing Cory Higgins.
Barcelona’s Nikola Mirotic tied his career-high PIR of 39 in that 2022 Final Four semifinal loss against Real.
Last season at Palau Blaugrana, when Barcelona beat Real 93-80, Mirotic scored a career-best 31 points, tied a club record with 14 free throws made and also grabbed 10 rebounds, and had a career-high PIR of 39 to earn MVP of the Round honors.