Olympiacos Piraeus is back to its third straight Final Four after to a dramatic, defensive-minded 59-63 road win over FC Barcelona. Olympiacos now heads to Berlin where it will playing in the semifinals against Real Madrid, in a rematch of last year's championship game.
I was a historic night for the Reds, one at the beginning of which home teams had a perfect 19-0 record in Games 5s in EuroLeague Playoffs history. But Olympiacos became the second road team on Wednesday night alone to clinch a best-of-five series, just hours after Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul did the same in Monaco.
In this game, Olympiacos spent most of the night trailing, and got its first lead, 47-49, on a Shaquielle McKissic triple with exactly 5 minutes to go. Soon after, the Reds added a 0-8 run in a span of just 42 seconds, to open a 49-57 margin, which they managed to keep until the final buzzer, booking a place at the Final Four.
McKissic scored 9 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter. Kostas Papanikolaou scored 5 of his 11 in the final 3 minutes, while Nikola Milutinov collected 10 points and 10 rebounds in a historic victory. Nicolas Laprovittola paced Barcelona with 17 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, Alex Abrines finished with 13 points, while Ricky Rubio had 6 points, 4 assist and 5 steals in defeat.
