Šarūnas Jasikevičius led Barcelona to the final four all three times, and Roger Grimau, who took over the baton from Lithuania, extended the successful stretch.
Four consecutive visits to the Euroleague quarterfinals is the longest stretch in the tournament.
However, the 45-year-old Catalan giants helmsman is the only play-off coach this season without play-off management experience.
On the other side of the barricades, Olympiakos Piraeus, led by three-time EuroLeague champion Georgios Bartzoks, has won 23 times on both fronts in the last 25 matches.
In the history of the EuroLeague playoffs of the new format (since 2016), only 4 times out of 24 have the team without a home field advantage won. In this episode though 15 minutes the participants of the show PIKENROLAS predict the triumph of Piraeus Olympiakos.
“Two good defensive teams meet, and in the playoffs, defense shows up even more. I think Olympiakos will win this series,” 15 minutes Linas Kleiza said in the show PIKENROLAS.
Eriko Ovčarenko/BNS photo/Moment of the match
According to the portal “3stepsbasket.com”, the defense rating of Olympiakos is third in the Euroleague, Barcelona – fifth.
“The defense is on the side of Olympiakos, – 15 minutes Benas Matkevičius, the scout of the Lithuanian national team and Boston Celtics, said on the show PIKENROLAS. “They’ll walk underneath the barriers against Ricky Rubio and Tomaš Satoransky, and Barcelona will provoke Thomas Walkup to attack from a distance in this way.”
| April 24 | Barcelona | 22:00 |
| April 26 | Barcelona | 22:00 |
| April 30 | Piraeus | 9:30 p.m. |
| May 2 | Piraeus | 7:45 p.m. (if needed) |
| Unclear | Barcelona | Unclear |
“We all know very well how hard Olympiakos started this season, but finished fantastically,” said B. Matkevičius. – In the beginning, they had injuries, Nikola Milutinov, who showed great form, was dropped and came back. If he can play 100 percent, he will be one of the key players in the series.”
On January 18, N. Milutinov scored 20 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in a match against Maccabi Tel Aviv, which was the fourth time in EuroLeague history that a player recorded a “20+20” streak.
Mirsads Turkčanas did it first in the 2001-2002 season (27 points and 23 rebounds), Spencer Nelson scored 23 points and 20 rebounds in the 2006-2007 season, and a year later Antonis Fotsis recorded the statistical line of 22 points and 24 rebounds.
However, an ankle injury kept N. Milutinov out of the lineup for two months, and he returned to the field only in the last round of the regular season, when he scored 5 points in 5 minutes and collected 10 efficiency points against Istanbul Fenerbahce.
| Olympiakos – barcelona | 68:77 | October 13 |
| barcelona – “Olympiakos” | 86:78 | January 10 |
“An interesting micro-duel will be Thomas Walkup against Nicolas Laprovittola, who is Barcelona’s most dangerous player in attack. Another interesting confrontation – Alec Peters against Jabaris Parker, who will attack Olympiakos’ tall man on the perimeter – B. Matkevičius shared his thoughts about the series. – Jan Vesely is a versatile center who can defend in many ways. He could become a big factor in the series. With a change in defense, the Czech can knock down Olympiakos’ entire two-on-two game. Olympiakos likes to move the ball from side to side a lot. Barcelona could break the rhythm of their opponents with a changing defense. In that case, Piraeus won’t have many one-on-one options, either in the penalty box or with Isaiah Canaan at the three-point line. I think that Barcelona will try to play in different ways in defense in order to force Olympiakos to not play their game in attack – not two-on-two and not hand-off situations.”
Eriko Ovčarenko/BNS photo/Thomas Walkupas
“If Olympiakos wins, it will be with their team play. If you were to look for a player who can catch fire suddenly, it would be Isaiah Canaan. He alone can change the course of the match, similar to how Markus Howard did in Vitoria’s Baskonia club,” said B. Matkevičius.
At that time, L.Kleiza, looking for a possible “X factor” of the series, pointed his finger at the former player of “Zalgiris” Kaunas.
“Thomas Walkup can be like that,” said L. Kleiza. – If he rushes in the attack, hits from a distance, as he always does against “Žalgiris”, then it will be very difficult for the Barcelona team to win this series.”
Last season, in the quarter-final series against Istanbul “Fenerbahçe”, Th. Walkup made only 3 three-pointers out of 17 (17.6%). However, Olympiakos advanced to the final four after winning the series 3-2.
| barcelona | Olympiakos |
| J. Vesely, 12.9 points, 4.4 rebounds. room, 16.2 used white | N. Milutinov 8.5 points, 5.6 rebounds. room, 15 uses white |
| W. Hernangomez 11.1 points, 4.9 rebounds. room, 13.2 uses. white | A. Peters 13.4 points, 4.8 rebounds. room, 14.7 use white |
| N. Laprovittola 12.8 points, 5 rez. trans., 12.4 uses. white | M. Fallas 7.7 points, 4.6 rebounds. chamber, 2.6 rez. trans., 1.3 blk., 14.6 util. white |
| T. Satoransky 7.2 points, 4.4 rebounds. chamber, 4.1 rez. trans., 11.4 uses. white | M. Wright 9.3 points, 2.4 rebounds. room, 11.1 uses white |
| J. Parker 10.3 points, 3.9 rebounds. room, 9.3 uses white | Th. Walkup 8.7 points, 3.1 rebounds. chamber, 4.8 rez. trans., 1.5 per. room, 10.4 uses white |
It is difficult to expect a big role for Lithuanians in this series.
Ignas Brazdeikis has not been registered in the Greek Championship for two months, during which time the 25-year-old Lithuanian started only once and played less than six minutes in the last four Euroleague matches.
On the other side of the barricades, after the arrival of Ricky Rubio, the melting minutes of Roko Jokubaitis. In the last five EuroLeague matches, the Lithuanian national team attack organizer played 10 minutes each, during which he collected just 2.2 utility points.
| barcelona | Statistics | Olympiakos |
| 82.7 | Points | 79 |
| 36 | Rebound balls | 32.3 |
| 11.3 | Offensive rebounds | 9.4 |
| 19.4 | Effective passes | 19.3 |
| 6.2 | Intercepted balls | 7 |
| 2.4 | Blocks | 2.8 |
| 56.1 | 2-point shooting (percentage) | 55.6 |
| 36.6 | Three-point shooting (percentage) | 37.3 |
| 73.2 | Hitting penalties (%) | 74.3 |
| 94.5 | Usefulness | 91.9 |
“I am leaning towards the victory of Olympiakos, because their second half of the season was impressive,” said B. Matkevičius. – The physicality they showed in Kaunas was incredible. They came to Nemunas Island and simply showed their class. He broke all the barriers, pressed the ball incredibly. Another thing is that experience is on the side of Georgia Bartzok, not Roger Grimau. I think they will be eager to come back and prove themselves after the last four, even if they don’t have Sasha Vezenkov and Kost Slouk.”
| Linas Kleiza | Olympiakos will win 3-1 |
| Ben Matkevičius | Olympiakos will win 3-1 |
| 15 minutes journalist Rokas Pakėnas | Olympiakos will win 3-1 |
