Panathinaikos, Kinder outlast rivals in semis
In the first EuroLeague Final Four this century in Bologna, Italy, Panathinaikos Athens and Kinder Bologna earned the right to play in the championship game after semifinals victories. Panathinaikos defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv in the first game 83-75. The Greens rode the hot hand of Dejan Bodiroga, who gave Panathinaikos control of a back-and-forth battle early in the fourth quarter and finished with 27 points and 9 rebounds. Big men Darryl Middleton and Lazaros Papadopoulos combined for 24 points, while Maccabi's top scorer was Tal Burstein with 16 points off the bench.
Defending champion Kinder advanced to the title game after holding off Italian League rival Benetton Treviso 82-90 at home at PalaMalaguti. Kinder used a 10-0 run to open the fourth quarter and snap a 63-63 tie. Marko Jaric paced the winners with 18 points, David Andersen added 15 points and Manu Ginobili and Sani Becirovic scored 14 each. Tyus Edney and Charlie Bell paced Benetton with 19 points apiece.
Bodiroga, Kutluay lead Greens to glory
Panathinaikos became the first - and to date only – team to win a EuroLeague championship game on its opponents' home floor when it erased a 14-point second-quarter deficit to beat Kinder Bologna 83-89. After a second-quarter burst that gave rise to euphoria among the Kinder fans, Panathinaikos worked its way back into the game. Center Lazaros Papadopoulos was the catalyst of the comeback, but in the second half veterans Dejan Bodiroga and Ibrahim Kutluay took over. Kutluay scored 22 points for Panathinaikos, while Bodiroga, voted Final Four MVP, had 21 and Papadopoulos 12 points in victory. For Kinder, Manu Ginobili netted 27 and Matjaz Smodis had 13 points.