By Vaggelis Papadimitriou/ info@eurohoops.net
The regular season in the EuroLeague is great, but the playoffs are greater! This is where the real season starts and history is made.
From 2001 onwards, when the Euroleague entered its modern era, several format changes happened, however, the playoffs were always special.
Eurohoops is here to rank the top 10 playoff series in the EuroLeague and we expect this year to be even bigger and better!
Olympiacos – Siena 1-3
Season: 2010-11
Scores: 89-41, 65-82, 81-72, 88-76
This is a series that no one will ever forget.
A few months after they lost the final in Paris, the “Reds” wanted to return to the Final Four to finish what they had started. Siena was in their way.
The beginning was thunderous and deafening. How else you can call the unreal 89-41 Olympiacos win (Mavrokephalidis 15, Bourousis 14/Lavrinovic 12) in Game 1?
The rest of the series, however, showed that Coach Ivkovic’s players never moved on from their Game 1 triumph. The Italians gathered their pieces to take Game 2 65-82 (Mavrokephalidis 16/Hairston 19). They shouted that nothing was over, as many might have thought.
The series then moved to Italy, where Coach Pianigiani’s team scored an 81-72 victory in Game 3 (Jaric 24/Nesterovic 16), to finish the job in Game 4, prevailing with 88-76 (Hairston 25, Lavrinovic 19/Bourousis-Gordon 16).
Siena thus advanced to the Final Four for the fourth time in club history and eventually finished third in Barcelona, losing to Panathinaikos in the semifinals.