Olympiacos Piraeus looks to return to its first Final Four since 2017. AS Monaco hopes to make its first EuroLeague season even more memorable.
Series breakdown: Olympiacos Piraeus vs. AS Monaco
Home-court advantage
All teams start the playoffs 0-0, but if you look back, Olympiacos has been rock-solid at home all season long. The Reds are 13-1 at Peace and Friendship Stadium, including 7-0 against playoffs teams. Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade has been the only team until now to steal a road victory in Piraeus. Zvezda beat the Reds 72-76 in Round 23 behind 14 points from Ognjen Dobric. Olympiacos is 9-1 at home in Greek League action, only losing against archrivals Panathinaikos OPAP Athens, 76-81. That's 22 home wins in 24 games.
Looking back, since the round-robin format came into being for the 2016-17 season, the teams with the best home record have had mixed results. FC Bayern Munich had a league-best 13-4 home record last season and indeed won both of its playoff games at home, but lost the series. Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in 2018-19 was the only team to finish a regular season unbeaten at home, 15-0, but lost to visiting Zalgiris Kaunas in Game 2 of the playoffs before advancing to the Final Four. CSKA Moscow was 14-1 at home in the 2017-18 regular season and made it 16-1 with back-to-back wins against Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz to reach the Final Four. The three teams who had 14-1 home records in the 2016-17 campaign and had completely different home results in the playoffs: Real Madrid went 1-1 and CSKA 2-0 en route to the Final Four, while Panathinaikos lost in a sweep to Fenerbahce, a playoffs first.
Monaco is on a roll
Monaco heads into the playoffs with great momentum thanks to its major turnaround in the second half of the regular season, soon after Sasa Obradovic became its head coach. Defense has been the key to Monaco winning 13 of its last 16 games. Roca Team went from allowing opponents an average of 84.0 points in its first 17 games to just 77.6 after that. And with so many talented players around, defense easily led to offense.
Monaco had a 6-11 record after 17 rounds and was tied for 14th place, three games behind eighth-ranked Anadolu Efes Istanbul (9-8). Its only losses after that came against regular-season leader FC Barcelona, 88-83, at Palau Blaugrana, and twice at home: 82-83 to Zalgiris on a late basket by Lukas Lekavicius and 84-90 to Real in double overtime. Monaco, after 13 wins and three very narrow losses in its last 16 games, is ready.
MVPs of the Month
The last two MVPs of the Month are set to lead their teams into this series. Olympiacos forward Sasha Vezenkov was chosen as the EuroLeague MVP for February after averaging 15.8 points on 80.0% two-point shooting, 5.5 rebounds and 18.5 PIR. Vezenkov earned the first monthly MVP award of his seven-season EuroLeague career and also the first by any Olympiacos player since Georgios Printezis in April of 2015. He is averaging 13.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and a PIR of 17.8 for the season.
By earning the March MVP of the Month award Monaco's Mike James made history as the first player so honored while playing for three different teams. James averaged 19.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in March while maintaining his assists at 5.4 per game. He shot the ball well from all distances: 54.8% on two-pointers, 43.3% on threes and 89.7% on free throws. James leads Monaco in scoring (16.2 ppg.), assists (5.8 apg.) and PIR (17.3) this season.
Offense vs. defense
Even when Monaco's defensive improvements are remarkable in the second half of the season, these two teams play at different rhythms. Being loyal to its on playing style and dictating the right pace could be critical for both teams. At 84.0 points per game, Monaco is the highest-scoring team in the EuroLeague. It takes more two-point shots than any team (41.3 per night) with a solid accuracy rate (54.3%) and also makes 37.2% of its 22.7 three-point attempts per night. It ranks third in turnovers at just 11.2 per game.
Olympiacos's defense has been excellent all season, giving up just 74.9 points per night, the lowest average allowed by the Reds since their runner-up 2016-17 season. Olympiacos is limiting opponents to low shooting percentages, 51.6% on two-pointers and 33.7% on threes, both of which rank fourth among all EuroLeague teams. What's more, the Reds are boxing out well, allowing just 9.9 offensive rebounds per night while taking a third-ranked 24.5 on the defensive glass. Unlike Monaco, Olympiacos likes its long-range shots, attempting a fourth-ranked 22.6 triples per night as compared to a 17th-ranked 34.4 two-pointers.