2008-09 Euroleague Final Four Thread

[KWSN-Men]

I wouldn't expect Barcelona (or any other team for that matter) to have a serious chance to win a close game against CSKA...

As for the other game, i see Panathinaikos winning rather easily, they match up with Olympiacos really well, Olympiacos won't have Vasilopoulos and possibly Bourousis. In the final, it should be CSKA all the way, Panathinaikos hasn't proven this year that they can win tough close games.

Well, if PAO made the final then they can guard CSKA a lot better than Barca could. Spanoulis can guard Holden a lot better than Lakovic and Navarro can. Diamantidis can guard Siska a lot better than Basile can. Spanoulis/Diamantidis maybe even for a little bit Hatzivrettas could also be used to guard Langdon and could do it a lot better than Navarro.

The problem PAO would have IMO is guarding Lorbek and Smodis. Then again CSKA can't guard Batiste and Pekovic either. I would put Smodis as they key in that match up with his ability to spread the floor from the 4 spot, or also Khryapa if he plays at the 4 or at the 3 in the post. That is where CSKA has an advantage on PAO.

Then again, CSKA cannot guard Spanoulis and Saras on the pick and roll and that can beat even CSKA.

[KWSN-Men]

PAO pick and roll with Saras and Pekovic and Batiste raped Olympiacos. And Spanoulis as usual was great on both ends of the floor. I have to say though PAO was very lucky. If Vasilopoulos would have played and Bourousis would not have had to play with that high fever........Olympiacos would have won this one.

Anyway, the two best teams in Europe, CSKA and PAO are in the final like it should be. A rematch of the 2007 final that PAO won, only this time it is not PAO's home floor. CSKA wil be looking for revenge.

[oshmeehan]

Barcelona is a better team than PAO is this season. And that showed during the regular season (which yes, the regular season DOES matter since there are so few games and only 16 teams advance to Top 16).

Barcelona should have won against CSKA today, as they controlled most the game despite Navarro not playing well/much at all.

I wish these were best of 5 series or at least best of 3 series.

Oh well though, coulda woulda shoulda I suppose

[KWSN-Men]

Barcelona is a better team than PAO is this season. And that showed during the regular season (which yes, the regular season DOES matter since there are so few games and only 16 teams advance to Top 16).

Barcelona should have won against CSKA today, as they controlled most the game despite Navarro not playing well/much at all.

I wish these were best of 5 series or at least best of 3 series.

Oh well though, coulda woulda shoulda I suppose

No. Even though Barca is a bad match up for PAO. Barca lost because their coach was overwhelmed. A 5 game series against CSKA would not have helped them with that IMO. As for Barca being better than PAO........not a chance. If you look at these two games you can make a strong argument that the Greek semifinal was even the real final. I still think CSKA is better than Oly because of experience and coaching, but the way the Greek clubs played tonight was simply on another level.

That was the highest level game in the history of European club basketball. If PAO duplicates that performance either CSKA or Barca don't stand a chance. The thing is I don't see how PAO can possibly play that well 2 games in a row. They were unbelievable in this game. If they repeat that performance CSKA is going home and so would be Barca, rather easily even.

[Apollo64]

Barcelona is a shot chucking team that is fun to watch sometimes and can do a lot of damage, but they are nowhere near to playing championship basketball. Honestly they remind me a lot of the Barcelona teams twenty years ago that went to a lot of final fours and never won one.

The end of the Oly-PAO game was very anticlimactic for me, especially after watching the Bull-Celtics game last night. An overtime wouldn't have been bad. Olympiacos fumbled the key last two possessions, something that, well, a team like CSKA wouldn't do

The final is going to be close, with the edge going to CSKA.

[oshmeehan]

Barcelona is a better team than PAO is this season. And that showed during the regular season (which yes, the regular season DOES matter since there are so few games and only 16 teams advance to Top 16).

Barcelona should have won against CSKA today, as they controlled most the game despite Navarro not playing well/much at all.

I wish these were best of 5 series or at least best of 3 series.

Oh well though, coulda woulda shoulda I suppose

No. Even though Barca is a bad match up for PAO. Barca lost because their coach was overwhelmed. A 5 game series against CSKA would not have helped them with that IMO. As for Barca being better than PAO........not a chance. If you look at these two games you can make a strong argument that the Greek semifinal was even the real final. I still think CSKA is better than Oly because of experience and coaching, but the way the Greek clubs played tonight was simply on another level.

That was the highest level game in the history of European club basketball. If PAO duplicates that performance either CSKA or Barca don't stand a chance. The thing is I don't see how PAO can possibly play that well 2 games in a row. They were unbelievable in this game. If they repeat that performance CSKA is going home and so would be Barca, rather easily even.

I never said Barcelona would win a 5-game series against CSKA. I just don't like the whole 1 game and done thing when throughout the previous rounds of the playoffs they are best-of series. Either have it be one-and-done in all rounds (like NCAA basketball) or have it be "best-of" series for ALL the rounds (like NBA).

LMAO, and you just said even though Barca is a bad match-up for PAO. Then you say PAO would win rather easily against them. The only reason you think it was such an unbelievable game was cause it was TWO Greek teams battling it out against eachother. Of course its going to seem like a great game when it is two National rivals facing eachother.

PAO wins by 2 points and almost went to OT if that bunny hookshot is hit. Yet CSKA or Barca wouldn't stand a chance if PAO played either of them like they just played OLY?!?!? So you are saying OLY is a far better team than CSKA or Barca.

And once again, Barca is better than PAO. They've beaten PAO this year both times. You can't deny what has happened head-to-head and totally dismiss the FACTS. Had they played PAO or OLY instead of CSKA they'd be in the Championship right now

[KWSN-Men]

Barcelona is a shot chucking team that is fun to watch sometimes and can do a lot of damage, but they are nowhere near to playing championship basketball. Honestly they remind me a lot of the Barcelona teams twenty years ago that went to a lot of final fours and never won one.

The end of the Oly-PAO game was very anticlimactic for me, especially after watching the Bull-Celtics game last night. An overtime wouldn't have been bad. Olympiacos fumbled the key last two possessions, something that, well, a team like CSKA wouldn't do

The final is going to be close, with the edge going to CSKA.

I have to say, what the hell was Vujcic and Greer thinking? I can't believe those last plays they made.

[KWSN-Men]

Barcelona is a better team than PAO is this season. And that showed during the regular season (which yes, the regular season DOES matter since there are so few games and only 16 teams advance to Top 16).

Barcelona should have won against CSKA today, as they controlled most the game despite Navarro not playing well/much at all.

I wish these were best of 5 series or at least best of 3 series.

Oh well though, coulda woulda shoulda I suppose

No. Even though Barca is a bad match up for PAO. Barca lost because their coach was overwhelmed. A 5 game series against CSKA would not have helped them with that IMO. As for Barca being better than PAO........not a chance. If you look at these two games you can make a strong argument that the Greek semifinal was even the real final. I still think CSKA is better than Oly because of experience and coaching, but the way the Greek clubs played tonight was simply on another level.

That was the highest level game in the history of European club basketball. If PAO duplicates that performance either CSKA or Barca don't stand a chance. The thing is I don't see how PAO can possibly play that well 2 games in a row. They were unbelievable in this game. If they repeat that performance CSKA is going home and so would be Barca, rather easily even.

I never said Barcelona would win a 5-game series against CSKA. I just don't like the whole 1 game and done thing when throughout the previous rounds of the playoffs they are best-of series. Either have it be one-and-done in all rounds (like NCAA basketball) or have it be "best-of" series for ALL the rounds (like NBA).

LMAO, and you just said even though Barca is a bad match-up for PAO. Then you say PAO would win rather easily against them. The only reason you think it was such an unbelievable game was cause it was TWO Greek teams battling it out against eachother. Of course its going to seem like a great game when it is two National rivals facing eachother.

PAO wins by 2 points and almost went to OT if that bunny hookshot is hit. Yet CSKA or Barca wouldn't stand a chance if PAO played either of them like they just played OLY?!?!? So you are saying OLY is a far better team than CSKA or Barca.

And once again, Barca is better than PAO. They've beaten PAO this year both times. You can't deny what has happened head-to-head and totally dismiss the FACTS. Had they played PAO or OLY instead of CSKA they'd be in the Championship right now

No. I am saying based on the level of play in the games so far Barca is the 4th best team at Berlin and it's fairly obvious. Since Olympiacos has some injury issues and Bourousis is sick and they have to worry about A1 playoffs maybe they will play all bench in the next game against Barca. Then again Barca maybe will also because they have to worry about ACB playoffs. I'm not saying Barca isn't a great team, I think they are and on paper they are comparable to any Euro club. But unfortunately you live by the 3 you die by the three.

They are a very dynamic team but as Apollo said that's not championship basketball. Even as much criticism as Giannakis takes, even Olympiacos plays closer to the championship style than Barca does. Barca is probably still one big player away, so we will see what they do this summer.

[oshmeehan]

IDK, you can't compare level of play based on only 1 game. Its not like Barca got blown out by CSKA. It was a close game throughout with CSKA pulling it out in the 4th. Barca also has its issues injury-wise. Lakovic was out for the longest time and came back recently. Navarro has been hurt as well in recent weeks and even missed some games and had playing time cut down in others.

Considering the players that didn't show up today for Barca, which was all everyone but Andersen and Lakovic (who played well in the 1st half only), they would have won had one of their other guys stepped up or if Navarro played at his normal level. Barca had far more bad individual performances than CSKA did and that was the difference in the game. What Siskauskas did in the 4th quarter is what Navarro should be doing (as he is capable of that).

[oshmeehan]

Also, to add onto Barca being one player away. They IMO need someone that is better than Santiago down low. Someone that plays like Splitter or Pekovic and can be one of their top 2 players along with Navarro. I don't know if there are any players like that available this summer though

Also, its possible Ersan Ilyasova may not be back next season. The Milwaukee Bucks GM came to Berlin to watch Ersan play and meet with him. He also came to Spain inFebruary to watch/meet with Ersan as well. The Bucks want Ersan back but they just may not have the money right now to pay him. The Bucks don't have much money to sign Ersan, let alone any other players this summer, so they would need to make a trade that clears some salary.

[raleigh]

For sure, Childress owes Olympiacos another season. It wasn't his fault he was injured, of course, but he cannot be happy with failing to win the title.

[Greek]

The most important of the semis is that all 4 teams tried to play basketball. Wrestling basketball is officially over (dont ever come back Malcovic). I believe that the 2 best teams are on the finals. I dont think that are much better than the other 2, but they have the experience and the best coaches in Europe. Lets hope for a final like the semis. I just hope for Panathinaikos to win and yes i am a homer.

[suckfish]

How wide open was Bourousis on that last play!? Lynn Greer completely missed him on the pick and roll. Wow.

[Slyk]

Navarro named MVP of the Euroleague

[brassviews]

I thought Olympiakos would win. I don't know why Bou had the ball for the last shot.

[KWSN-Men]

Yep, Greer blew the game. Bourousis was wide open under the basket and Greer just just stood there all confused as to what to do. But I don't blame Greer because he is what he is. He's a very good player he just has zero point guard ability. A real true midget SG, basically an Aaron Brooks type. That's why he doesn't get much interest from the NBA.

[Greek]

Amazing Pana. At the 1nd of the 1st half is ahead with 20 points, and unreal 3pt % Lorberk and Khryapa

[Apollo64]

Panathinaikos playing incredible and leading by 20 in the half (48-28). Every single CSKA play has been countered, nothing is working for them and only Holden got in the game. I think there is about 1% chance they can come back.

[suckfish]

CSKA making a run. Not totally out of reach, but unlikely.

[brassviews]

What a game

CSKA with the huge comeback