By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Real Madrid is already waiting for the winner of the series between Panathinaikos and Barcelona. The Spaniards with a 3-0 sweep prevailed over Maccabi, while in Athens the Greens beat the “Blaugrana” and have a 2-1 advantage.
- Real Madrid started the game in Tel Aviv with a 14-5 run and despite the fact that Maccabi reacted, the Spaniards were the better team and prevailed with ease getting a 3-0 sweep and the ticket to London’s Final Four. Momentarily the hosts had a four points lead (42-38) in the 25th minute, but then Real had one more big run (14-2), the third quarter ended with the guests leading 52-44 and the final 69-57 in favor of Madrid felt like the natural conclusion to the game. Jaycee Carroll was the top scorer of the winners with 16 points, however it was a game decided in defense, something that few expected considering the usual uptempo style of both teams.
- Once again a close game between Panathinaikos and Barcelona ended with the Greens getting the win (65-63). Despite the fact that the hosts had a double digit lead almost throughout the first quarter, the zone defense of the guests gave them a big advantage in the third quarter (partial score 22-12) and everything was decided in the details. Diamantidis made one more big three in the last minutes (64-63), with the ball hitting the backboard before getting in. Also he now had 799 assist in Euroleague, one more than Pablo Prigioni and he is second in the all time list behind Thodoris Papaloukas. On the other hand Barcelona and specially Sada were afraid to shoot, passing on open shots in order to get the ball to Navarro and Jasikevicius. But in the last seconds both Navarro and Jasikevicius missed, the defense of Panathinaikos won the game and now the Greeks have a 2-1 advantage and need one more win in order to advance.