The two historic clubs will go to battle in the EuroLeague Playoffs in the 4-5 matchup
5 key questions: Barcelona vs. Olympiacos
FC Barcelona has made it to the last three Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Fours, compared to the last two for Olympiacos Piraeus, but this time only one of them will punch their ticket to Berlin. So what are the main questions ahead of the series?
Will home-court advantage be decisive?
Barca has been really solid at home this season, losing just twice in 17 regular-season games. If you look back in playoff history since best-of-five series were introduced in 2009, however, the Blaugrana have lost at least one playoff game at Palau Blaugrana against Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz (2009), Real Madrid (2010), Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens (2011 and 2013), Olympiacos (2015), Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (2016), Anadolu Efes Istanbul (2019), Zenit St Petersburg (2021) and FC Bayern Munich (2022). It lost the home-court advantage seven times, and was unable to finish the job at home twice. Since 2009, Olympiacos has won playoff road games against Real (2009), Asseco Prokom Gydnia (2010), Montepaschi Siena (2012), Barca (2015), Efes (2017), AS Monaco (2022) and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul (2023). Will Barca make its home-court advantage count or will it come unstuck against a team that specializes in winning on the road?
Can Barca stay red-hot from downtown?
Barca beat Olympiacos in both of their meetings this season. Sharing the ball well and finding good options for its three-point shooters allowed Barca to get those wins, which eventually led to the home-court advantage in this series. In those two games, Barca combined for 26-of-51 three-pointers (51.0% 3FG), forcing Olympiacos to hit just 15-of-47 shots from beyond the arc (31.9%). This season, Roger Grimau's squad ranks 15th in three-point shooting in road games (34.3% 3FG) but hit 15-of-26 attempts (57.7% 3FG) at Peace and Friendship Stadium. Alex Abrines (45.2% 3FG), Nikola Kalinic (42.7%), Nico Laprovittola (40.4%) and Jabari Parker (36.9%) are Barca's best three-point shooters this season, and they all did even better against the Reds (Abrines 71.4% 3FG, Laprovittola 60.0%, Parker 57.1%, Kalinic 55.6%). Will Olympiacos improve its three-point defense against Barca in the most crucial part of the season?
Can Canaan and Peters keep impressing?
Olympiacos started the season with some big shoes to fill and instead of looking for star players in the market, head coach Georgios Bartzokas opted to give bigger roles to a couple of players who had more limited playing time in the 2022-23 season. It has paid off really well, as Alec Peters and Isaiah Canaan are posting career-best numbers. Canaan averaged 6.3 points on 38.2% three-point shooting and a PIR of 3.4 last season. In the 2023-24 campaign, Canaan has boosted those numbers to 12.0 points on 44.7% three-pointers and a PIR of 9.4. Peters had a smaller role off the bench last season, averaging 4.6 points on 41.1% three-pointers, 2.5 rebounds and a PIR of 4.5. This season, Peters is averaging 13.4 points on a league-leading 51.3% from downtown, 4.8 rebounds and a PIR of 14.7, while he's also started in all 33 games he took part in. Can they take those bigger numbers into high-pressure playoff games?
Who will be the X-factor in this series?
As always, some players will raise their level in the playoffs and help their team get to the Final Four. Last season, Barca got an extra contribution from Rokas Jokubaitis, who averaged 5.0 points, 2.5 assists and a PIR of 6.3 in regular-season action but increased his numbers to 10.7 points, 3.3 assists and a PIR of 14.7 in his team's series against Zalgiris Kaunas. Last season, Olympiacos eliminated Fenerbahce in a five-game series. The Reds relied on Moustapha Fall to make the difference in the paint, averaging 8.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.4 blocks and a PIR of 16.6, which were all greater than his regular-season numbers (7.2 ppg., 4.6 rpg., 2.0 apg., 0.8 bpg., 11.7 PIR). Of course, Barca's main candidate to be an X-factor is Ricky Rubio, who joined the team late and is ready to prove his value. The same can be said about Moses Wright and Filip Petrusev, who can add something different to the Reds' mix in a fascinating-looking series.
Which team will protect the paint better?
They say basketball is a game of small details, but that's even truer in the playoffs. This one is very simple: both teams have really effective centers, and the team that gets its big men involved and scoring should have an edge in this series. Barca center Willy Hernangomez leads the 2023-24 EuroLeague in two-pointers made per 40 minutes (10.0) followed by teammate Jan Vesely (9.4). That means one of them scores inside the arc once every 2 minutes and 37 seconds, combining for 301-of-486 attempts (61.9% 2FG). On the other side of the court, Fall is the most effective two-point shooter this season (79.7% 2FG), Nikola Milutinov leads the EuroLeague in offensive rebounds per 40 minutes (5.5) and in just 11 games, Moses Wright averages 9.3 points on 73.1% two-pointers and a PIR of 11.1 in less than 16 minutes on the floor. Who will find the best options for their highly efficient centers?