Will PAO miss the Final Four in OAKA?
The decisive Game 5 between Valencia and Panathinaikos will be played tomorrow in the Roig Arena, and the winner will be the 4th team to advance to the EuroLeague Final Four in Athens.
So far, this has been one of the best playoff series in recent years, and if Game 5 is as spectacular as the first four, this will go down as one of the best series ever. It has also been an atypical series: all four games were won by the away team, even though both Valencia and Panathinaikos have huge fanbases and normally have a strong home-court advantage.
Valencia finished 2nd in the regular season, so the Spanish team hosted Game 1, but it immediately became clear that PAO is a very tough team to beat: the Greeks won the 1st quarter by 8 points and even though they lost the next three quarters, they held on to the lead and won by 1 point (67-68). Game 2 was also very intense, and this time it was a high-scoring game that needed an overtime period to decide the winner. Nigel Hayes-Davis was the hero for the Greens as he scored the game-winning basket in the last seconds of overtime (105-107). An incident involving PAO owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos also happened during overtime when he confronted the officials at the scoring table, and the Spanish police had to intervene.
The series moved to Athens, and the fans filled the OAKA to celebrate, but Valencia responded as a big team does, and they managed to somewhat silence the crowd and they led by 13 points at halftime. Their lead grew to 19 points in the 3rd quarter, but PAO made a strong comeback and cut the deficit to just 3 points, but it wasn’t enough, and the Spanish team won Game 3 (87-91). The Greeks had the chance to close the series in Game 4, but again Valencia started much better and even though they lost three quarters, the ‘’Taronja’’ won 89-86. Jean Montero had an amazing performance in this game with 29 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.
The series will be decided in the Roig Arena in Valencia, and it’s tough to predict a winner. It would be a historic qualification for Valencia to the Final Four, and the way Valencia played all season, they deserve to be there. For PAO, it would also be a huge thing as the Final Four will be played in the OAKA, so they would play on their home court in front of their fans, and that can boost their special motivation to beat Valencia.
Imre Halasz
Image credit: EuroLeague
