A Game 5 win over Barcelona sends the Reds back to the semifinals
Olympiacos heading to 3rd straight Final Four
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After going more than a decade without taking the crown, Olympiacos Piraeus is now only two wins away from reuniting with the EuroLeague Trophy. The Reds survived a grueling five-game series against FC Barcelona, winning Game 5 on the road to advance to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four for the third year running. Coach Georgios Bartzokas, who was on the bench when Olympiacos won its last championship in 2013, leads the team to Berlin to target another triumph.
This will be Olympiacos’s 13th Final Four, which represents the fourth most appearances in competition history behind CSKA Moscow (20), FC Barcelona (17) and its semifinal opponent Real Madrid, which will play its 14th Final Four when it takes the floor against the Reds on May 24. Olympiacos’s nine championship-game appearances are the second most in the Final Four era. The Final Four will also be Olympiacos’s second in the German capital; it finished fourth in 2009 after losing to archrival Panathinaikos Athens in the semis.
Journey to the Final Four
After losing a championship-game thriller to Real Madrid last season, Olympiacos set its sights on getting back there. The first step was bringing back eight players who dressed for the championship game. The Reds stumbled early this season, despite an opening-night win at Panathinaikos. Olympiacos was 3-4 by mid-November and back-to-back losses to Valencia Basket and Virtus Segafredo Bologna in mid-December knocked the team down to 11th in the standings. However, no team finished the regular season stronger. It went 10-1 from Round 24 onward and not only climbed up to fifth place, but was one win out of second and matched fourth-placed Barcelona at 22-12.
Olympiacos’s success has been built on having the best defensive team in the competition for the second year running. During the regular season, it allowed a league-low 73.3 points per game.
The Reds carried their momentum and defensive prowess into the playoffs and – despite losing to Barcelona twice in the regular season – turned the series upside down with a 75-77 Game 1 victory. Two of its newcomers, Nigel Williams-Goss and Filip Petrusev, played key roles in the win. Barcelona bounced back by taking Game 2 at home and Game 3 in overtime at Peace & Friendship Stadium. With its back to the wall, Olympiacos produced a historic effort in Game 4 as it pummeled Barcelona 92-58 to stay alive and force a Game 5. Then a late 0-8 run led by Shaq McKissic in Game 5 gave the Reds a historic 59-63 victory and ticket to Berlin.
Final Four experience
On top of its eight returnees from last season, Olympiacos added a pair of former champs. Williams-Goss won it all with Real Madrid last season and Petrusev was a reserve with Anadolu Efes Istanbul’s championship-winning side in 2022. Another summer signee, Nikola Milutinov, reached the 2017 championship game in his first stint with the Reds. The only player among Olympiacos’s top 10 in PIR without previous Final Four experience is mid-season addition Moses Wright. In addition to Williams-Goss and Petrusev, Alec Peters (CSKA 2019) and Kostas Papanikolaou (Olympiacos 2012, 2013) are also former EuroLeague champs.
Final Four history
Olympiacos was the talk of the town when it won back-to-back EuroLeague Championships in 2012 and 2013 and remained a contender after that, getting back to the championship game in 2015 and 2017, when it lost to Real Madrid and Fenerbahce Istanbul, respectively. Despite bidding farewell to the generation of legends Vassilis Spanoulis and Georgios Printezis – only Papanikolaou remains from those years, Olympiacos remained competitive with a new wave of talent. And now they will head to Berlin looking to claim the club’s fourth crown.