Efes begins the defense of its throne against an Olympiacos warrior
MADRID, 18 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Anadolu Efes and Olympiacos will kick off the ‘Final Four’ of the Euroleague this Thursday (6:00 p.m.), which takes place in Belgrade, where the Turkish team will try to defend their crown, first in search of their third consecutive final against a Hellenic team that returns five years later to the semifinals.
The start of the ‘F4′ will be a theoretically even match, where the slight favoritism of Ergin Ataman’s men is offset by the competitive capacity of Georgios Bartzokas’ men, chosen in the previous round as the ‘Best Coach’ of the maximum continental competition.
Thus, on the floor of the Stark Arena in Belgrade, the best attack of the Regular Phase of the competition will be measured, that of Anadolu Efes, which scores 82.9 points per game, and the second best defense, that of Olympiacos, which only concedes 73 points, so a good part of the options for both will go through taking the game to their ground.
In Istanbul, Efes won 88-69 in a stellar performance by Rodrigue Beaubois, who scored 29 points, leaving his rival to just three points in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, in the Pavilion of Peace and Friendship, Olympiacos won by a tight 87-85 and came back in the last seconds with a basket by Tyler Dorsey and a triple in the last second by Kostas Sloukas.
Anadolu Efes’ chances depend on the form of its two stars, Vasilije Micic and Shane Larkin. The Serbian, last season’s ‘MVP’, has been the top scorer in the competition, averaging 18.2 points per game, while the American scored at a high level in the ‘playoffs’ against Armani Milan, with 15 points and dishing out five assists on average in each game.
Under the leadership of these two players and an already consolidated block, the Turkish team, which has gone from less to more in this Euroleague in which it has been somewhat irregular, will seek to pass to its third consecutive final and take the definitive step to revalidate the throne to which he climbed by beating Barça last year.
Opposite will be an Olympiacos whose last final was in 2017, plagued by veterans like Kostas Sloukas, who knows what it’s like to win the Euroleague three times, Georgios Printezis or Kostas Papanikolaou, which gives them that bit of experience to try to counteract the theoretical major champion quality. This season they have been led on court by a very inspired Sasha Vezenkov, who has averaged 13.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, being chosen third in the voting for the ‘MVP’.
OLYMPIACOS: Walkup, Dorsey, Sloukas, Papanikolaou y Vezenkov – possible quinteto initial– Lountzis, Larentzakis, Muosa, Mckissic, Acy, Oikonomopoulos, Printezis, Jean-Charles, Martin y Fall.
ANADOLU EFES: Shane Larkin, Micic, Beaubois, Moerman and Pleiss –possible starting five–; Balbay, Bryant, Gaci, Tuncer, Simon, Saybir, Singleton, Anderson, Guven, Petrusev, and Dunston.
–Arbitros: Ryzhyk, Latisevs y Vilius.
–PAVILLION: Stark Arena.
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