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.
Barcelona – Panathinaikos 1-3
Season: 2010-11
Scores: 83-82, 71-75, 76-74, 78-67
In the same year, Panathinaikos and Diamantidis registered a masterpiece against Barcelona. The task, however, was not easy. The Spaniards were the defending European champions, had the home-court advantage, and were hosting the Final Four.
Things for Panathinaikos got even worse when Barcelona won the series opener 83-82 (Navarro 13, Lakovic-Lorbek 12). Coach Obradovic‘s team, however, had the solutions and the mental reserves to tie the series at 1-1 after beating Barcelona 71-75 (Navarro 19/Sato 18, Diamantidis 17).
With the games moving to OAKA, Panathinaikos had the upper hand, but Barcelona was not a pushover. Diamantidis with 2 shots sealed the deal in Game 3, 76-74, (Diamantidis 18/Rubio 16) and the Greens completed the great upset two days later.
OAKA was full for Game 4 and celebrated accordingly. The final score was 78-67 (Calathes 12, Diamantidis-Fotsis 11/Vazquez 14) and sent Panathinaikos to Barcelona, where they ended up winning their sixth EuroLeague trophy by beating Maccabi in the Final.
Panathinaikos – Maccabi 3-2
Season: 2011-12
Scores: 93-73, 92-94, 65-62, 69-78, 86-85
This was an epic series and a great way to prepare for what the two rivals can provide this season. The advantage was “Green”. It was evident in Game 1 with a 93-73 home win (Diamantidis 15, Calathis 13/Langford 21) with Panathinaikos celebrating and getting even more self-confidence.
However, everything changed just two days later, when the Israeli champs grabbed a road win, 92-94 (Kaimakoglou 20/Langford 17), after a thriller that was decided in overtime with a big three-pointer by Blu with 31 seconds left that made it 92-93, while Jasikevicius immediately after and Diamantidis at the end could not make the winning shot.
The momentum had turned for good in favor of Maccabi after a 65-62 home win (Ohayon 12/Batiste 13) in Tel Aviv, but the Panathinaikos demonstrated the heart of a champion in Game 4 with a 69-78 win (Langford-Smith 14/ Calathes 15) to force Game 5.
And the climax was worthy of the series. The home team led 73-63, but the visitors tied the score at 85-85 with 7 seconds left in the game. Diamantidis (25 points) was there to finish the job with a free throw and his trademark defense on the last play.
The qualification to the 2012 Final Four remains the last one for Panathinaikos to date and it finished fourth that season after defeats by CSKA Moscow and Barcelona.
Milan – Maccabi 1-3
Season: 2013-14
Scores: 99-101, 91-77, 75-63, 86-66
Milan’s quest for qualification in the Final Four they were hosting in 2014 began with the worst of omens. In Game 1, the two teams gave everything, and after 45 minutes of action, the Israeli champs won 99-101 (Langford 18/Hickman 26) thanks to 2 free throws by Hickman.
Game 2 belonged to Milan, which protected home court with a 91-77 victory (Jerrels 17/Tyus 16), but Coach Blatt’s side had the upper hand with a series tied at 1-1 and the next two games in Tel Aviv.
Playing at home Maccabi took a 2-1 lead with a 75-63 win (Blu 16/Hackett 14) and Game 4 turned out to be a 86-66 triumph (Hickman-Tyus 16/Langford 28).
The qualification to the Final Four had a double meaning, with the hosts left out. Maccabi ultimately won the trophy in Milan after an unforgettable final against Real.
Barcelona – Olympiacos 1-3
Season: 2014-15
Scores: 73-57, 63-76, 73-71, 71-68
This was the second time that Barcelona had the home-court advantage against a Greek team but ultimately failed to make it to the Final Four.
Barca had no problem in Game 1 at home, winning 73-57 (Navarro-Nachbar 10/Agravanis 9), with Olympiacos looking like it might be more focused on aiming for an upset in Game 2. It was a conspiracy theory that proved to be true. The final score was 63-76 (Navarro 16/Printezis 22) bringing the series to Piraeus at 1-1 and the whole momentum changed.
Playing on the road, Barcelona couldn’t deliver at crunch time and the Spanoulis-Printezis duo with 15 and 19 points respectively pushed Olympiacos to a very hard-fought 73-71 win.
And Game 4 provided one of the most iconic playoff shots. With 6 seconds left, Navarro split free throws and the score was tied at 68. After the missed free throw, Mantzaris got the rebound, Spanoulis passed it to Sloukas, and he gave the ball to Printezis for a three that won the game at the buzzer.
This can be considered the start of a trend since Olympiacos registered two similar shots winning 3-2 the series against Monaco in 2022 with Dorsey making it and Kevin Durant being present in the games and last year against Fenerbahce with Kostas Sloukas silencing his former team on the road.
Lokomotiv – Barcelona 3-2
Season: 2015-16
Scores: 66-61, 66-92, 82-70, 80-92, 81-67
You simply can’t overlook the Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar run of the 2015-16 season.
Coach Bartzokas’s team included Delaney, Singleton, Randolph, Claver, Janning, and Brockhoff and finished second in their Top 16 group. However, playing against his former team, Barcelona, nothing was going to be simple in the playoffs.
The start was a 66-61 win in Russia (Randolph 17/Ribas 13), with the hosts finishing the game on a 6-0 run. Game 2, however, was a statement from Barcelona. How else can one interpret a 66-92 triumph (Delaney 19/Navarro 18), which brought the series to 1-1?
Barcelona got that 2-1 advantage at home, prevailing 82-70 (Abrines 25/Randolph 16), however, Lokomotiv was a special team and proved it in the crucial Game 4, with an 80-92 win (Navarro 19/Randolph 28) that tied the series at 2-2.
For three quarters, Game 5 was a dogfight, but in the last 10 minutes of the series, Loko outscored Barcelona 23-5 to win 81-67 (Delaney 17/Perperoglou 13) and make their first and only appearance at a Final Four.
Panathinaikos – Real Madrid 1-3
Season: 2017-18
Results: 95-67, 82-89, 81-74, 89-82
This is the Doncic series. With Panathinaikos having the home court advantage the first game ended with the Greens getting an easy 95-67 win (James 24/ Doncic 10). Coach Pablo Laso publicly challenged his players, notoriously saying that a news kiosk owner, who was an Olympiacos fan, told him after Game 1 that Real “played like chickens.”
So the tables were turned with Real Madrid winning Game 2, 82-89, and bringing back memories of the Olympiacos – Siena series. Mike James had 20 points for Panathinaikos that night, but Real Madrid with 18 by Reyes and 17 by Carroll got the win despite Doncic scoring just 8 points.
In Madrid, Real prevailed in Game 3 by 81-74 (Carroll 17) and Doncic had 7 points and 10 rebounds. With Real having a chance to secure qualification in Game 4, Doncic finally got his best game of the series with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1 turnover on the way to an 89-82 win.
Real Madrid ended up winning the trophy, Doncic won the season MVP and Final Four MVP awards, which now seems like a very natural thing. Doncic remains the youngest player to achieve those honors since back then he was just 18 years old.
Panathinaikos-Fenerbahce 0-3
Season: 2016-17
Results: 58-71, 75-80, 79-61
This is a sweep that made history since it happened from the team that didn’t have the home-court advantage. Fenerbahce went on to win it all, hosting the Final Four in Istanbul, and despite finishing 5th in the regular season, it was obvious that it was ready at the right time.
OAKA, the home court of Panathinaikos, is one of the hardest gyms to play at in Europe. However, Fenerbahce won both Game 1 (58-71) and Game 2 (80-75) with Bogdan Bogdanovic cementing his legacy in Europe.
In the first game, he had 23 points on 5-of-6 three-point shooting, while KC Rivers scored 16 and Mike James added 14 for Panathinaikos, and in Game 2, Bogi had 25 on 5-of-8 from deep while James scored 22.
Down 0-2, Panathinaikos was broken and in Game 3, Fenerbahce had it easy (79-61) in Istanbul with Bobby Dixon scoring 13 and Bogdanovic adding 10 points.
Notoriously, Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos canceled the flight tickets of his team to Athens, and with few exceptions, Panathinaikos players returned to the Greek capital after Game 3 by a bus ride that took almost 14 hours.
Real Madrid – Partizan 3-2
Season: 2022-23
Results: 87-89, 80-95, 80-82, 78-85, 98-94
There is no better epilogue than the one written by Real Madrid and Partizan last year. And for the first and only time, we saw a team come back from a 0-2 deficit and qualify for the Final Four, even if the series will be remembered mainly for the on-court brawl in Game 3.
Partizan showed in Game 1 that if it didn’t have the experience, it had the courage and the quality. Kevin Punter made a big three-pointer to give the Serbs an 87-89 victory (Punter 26/Deck 24).
Game 2 should have been a triumph, as Partizan made it 0-2, winning 80-95 (Exum 19/Fernandez-Hezonja 16). But, somewhere, things took a different turn.
With about 1:40 left and while the game was already decided, things got out of hand, resulting in Game 2 never-ending in 40 minutes of play.
Sergio Llull committed a hard foul on Punter, the latter reacted and every trace of composure was lost, with a brawl erupting and Yabusele slamming Exum on the floor.
As a result, four players (Punter, Lessort, Yabusele, Deck) were fined, while the teams paid a €50,000 fine each. At the end of the series, however, Partizan would pay a much bigger price.
The subsequent European champions had not said their last word and showed it immediately in Game 3, winning 80-82 (Tavares 26/LeDay-Smailagic 15). Los Blancos repeated their success in Game 4, 78-85 (Tavares-Hanga 15/LeDay 25), and thus the series returned to Madrid for Game 5, while the momentum had shifted.
With Musa and Rodríguez making the difference with 20 and 19 points respectively, Real managed the unthinkable and despite being down 0-2, turned the series around. The final 98-94 went down in the EuroLeague history books as the first time this ever happened.