This season's precedents: Olympiacos vs. Fenerbahce

Olympiacos Piraeus's matchup against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in the 2023 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs will be a repeat of the 2017 championship game in Istanbul, Turkiye, which Fenerbahce won to secure its first and -to date - only EuroLeague title. Fast-forward six years and the Reds closed the 2022-23 regular season with the best record in the league, going 24-10 and earning the No. 1 seed in the process. Fenerbahce, meanwhile, had a rocky end to the campaign and dropped to 19-15, securing the No. 8 seed courtesy of its inferior head-to-head record against Zalgiris Kaunas. While Olympiacos and Fenerbahce have a 13-13 all-time record against one another, Georgios Bartzokas's squad destroyed Dimitris Itoudis's charges in the regular season, winning both games by a combined score of 47 points. Let's see how those two games unfolded.

Shaquielle McKissic has totalled 14 points and 4 assists combinning both games against Fenerbahce this season.
Nigel Hayes-Davis and Sasha Vezenkov hustle for the possession.
Big man Johnathan Motley just played once against the Reds this season. He scored 6 points and pulled 5 boards.
Big man Joel Bolomboy combined 10 points and 7 rebounds in the two games against Olympiacos this season.
This is the kind of hustle that can be expected in the series between Olympiacos and Fenerbahce.
Marko Guduric scored 33 points against the Reds this season, including 24 in Round 22 behind 5 of 11 threes.
Big man Moustapha Fall is a dominant force in the league and he will be a key piece in the Olympiacos puzzle also in the series.
Olympiacos and Fenerbahce have faced each other 26 times in the EuroLeague since the turn of the century. Their record stands at an even 13-13.
Veteran guard Kostas Sloukas has won EuroLeague titles with both teams: 2012 and 2013 with Olympiacos and 2017 with Fenerbahce.
Nick Calathes is in his debut season with Fenerbahce, but he's one of the most experienced players in the series. He won the 2011 title with Panathinaikos Athens.
Thomas Walkup has had his best EuroLeague season yet. He leads the league in steals (1.9 spg.) and is a top contender for the Best Defender award.
Since 2015, either Olympiacos or Fenerbahce have been in the Final Four (sometimes even together). The only exception was in 2021.

In Round 13, Olympiacos showed its teeth to the rest of the EuroLeague with a dominant 94-67 triumph against Fenerbahce at Peace and Friendship Stadium. That victory, at the start of a two-round week, gave a huge boost of confidence to the Reds, whereas Fenerbahce learned the hard way that it still had a way to go before cementing itself once again as one of Europe's most feared clubs. MVP frontrunner Sasha Vezenkov lit up Fenerbahce, scoring 21 points, of which 13 came in a first-quarter blitz that allowed Olympiacos to close the opening 10 minutes 20 points ahead, 31-11. The Reds kept their foot on the gas in the second quarter, outscoring Fenerbahce 27-20 to take a 58-31 lead into the break. The two sides won a quarter each, but the second-half scoreline of 36-36, didn’t tell the true story, as Olympiacos coasted to a huge win. Giannoulis Larentzakis and Alec Peters added 12 points apiece for the Reds. Carsen Edwards finished with 13 points and Ismet Akpinar 11 on the losing side.

There was the chance for Fenerbahce to exact some revenge back at Ulker Sports and Events Hall, but Olympiacos made sure to take care of business, winning 73-93. Another lightning-quick start by the visitors, led by 9 points by Isaiah Canaan, allowed them to end the first quarter in control, 10-24. Olympiacos bettered Fenerbahce's scoring in the second and third quarters – 20-27 and 21-26, respectively – which allowed it to enter the fourth quarter up 51-77. Fenerbahce outscored Olympiacos 22-16 in the final period, but by that point, the damage had been done. Kostas Papanikolaou scored a team-high 21 points for the Reds, followed by Canaan with 20. Vezenkov, Thomas Walkup and Shaquielle McKissic all contributed 12 each. Fenerbahce guard Marko Guduric finished with a game-high 24 points in the loss and Melih Mahmutoglu had 14.