European Basketball Weekly | Latest News & Stories – May. 09, 2022

MilosNS
May 9, 2022
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Euroleague Shane Larkin

Hello, basketball fans, and welcome to our weekly review! Many things happened in the past couple of days, so we will not make this introduction long. Let’s start with the latest news, stories, latest results, and what holds for next week! Also, don’t forget to read our free basketball predictions!

No surprises in Euroleague quarterfinals: Barcelona and Olympiacos took home-court advantage and went to the Final Four

From the moment when the quarterfinals of the Euroleague started to be played in best of 5, the decisive fifth game was played 15 times. All 15 times the victories were achieved by the home teams, which speaks enough about how important is to have a home-court advantage.

Barcelona and Olympiacos put their names in 15 mentioned home victories. The Catalans defeated Bayern 81:72 last week, although they had six points deficit after the first half. However, in the second half, the quality prevail and Barcelona justified the epithet of the favorite. If this had not happened, there would probably have been big upheavals within the club because the team that Sarunas Jasikevicius has at his disposal is the most expensive in the history of Barcelona.

It was also dramatic in Greece where Olympiacos defeated Monaco 94:88 in the fifth decisive game. Visitors had a double-digit advantage in the first half, but Georgios Bartzokas team played great in the second half and with a perfect shot in the fourth quarter came to their first appearance in the Final Four since 2017.

Kevin Durant, one of the best basketball players also attended the game in Piraeus. He also watched the fourth game in Monaco to support his friend and former teammate, Mike James. Olympiacos fans didn’t like that, so they booed popular KD when he entered the hall in Athens.

Final Four will be held from May 19 to 21 in Belgrade – All tickets are sold out!

This year’s Euroleague Final Four was planned to be played in Berlin, but due to a pandemic caused by the coronavirus, it was decided to move to Belgrade. The capital of Serbia hosted the Final Four of the elite European competition four years ago when Real Madrid won the title.

Real Madrid secured a place in the Final Four this year as well, and in the semifinals, they will play against Barcelona, ​​their biggest rival, on May 19. In the second clash, the current champion Anadolu Efes and Olympiacos will compete against each other. Everyone is expecting that we will watch the final between Efes and Barcelona once again, but Olympiacos and Real Madrid will try to prevent this.

All tickets for the final tournament have been sold out, which means that Belgrade’s “Stark Arena” will be filled to the last seat. Most of the tickets were bought by Olympiacos fans who will come in large numbers, and what is certain is that a real basketball spectacle awaits us.

Eurocup: Virtus and Bursaspor in the fight for the trophy and a place in Euroleague

In this year’s Eurocup final, Virtus and Bursaspor will compete. The team from Bologna has invested huge funds in recent years to reach the Euroleague and they are now a small step away from that success.

Along with Milos Teodosic and Marco Belinelli, who has been here for several years, Daniel Hackett and Toko Shengelia arrived this spring and those moves paid off. In the semifinals, they defeated Valencia on the road last week and will now play for the trophy in front of the home fans in Bologna.

Bursaspor is a real hit of this year’s Eurocup. The team, which absolutely no one saw as a serious candidate, managed to reach the final and will compete for a trophy and a place in the Euroleague. During the season, they were left without the top scorer Alleric Freeman, who went to CSKA, but then a series of big victories begin.

Dusan Alimpijevic did a phenomenal job on the bench of this club and he is Eurocup coach of the year. They knocked out Partizan, Cedevita Olimpija, and Andorra on three away games in a row, and there is one more miracle left to do.

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Author MilosNS

MilosNS is our senior content writer, SEO guru, and first ever tipster who started working with us, and he is still here. He is a well-known name in the sports betting industry, and his knowledge about anything betting related is vast. If you have any questions, or doubts, MilosNS has the answer for you.

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