Euroleague Final Four Preview: CSKA Moscow vs. Olympiacos

This Friday, May 19, the Euroleague Final Four will tip-off with CSKA Moscow taking on Olympiacos in Istanbul. These two teams have plenty of history in the Final Four, with most of it being recent.

In 2012, the two teams met in the final and Olympiacos stole the game in the final seconds with Georgios Printezis knocking down one of his signature quick release short corner floaters. The teams met in the Final Four in 2013 as well, this time in the semifinals where Olympiacos handled CSKA easily, winning the game 69-52 and going on to win their second straight Euroleague title. Then in 2015, the two teams met in the semifinal again and CSKA choked away a nine-point lead with five minutes left all at the hands of Vassilis Spanoulis.

Last season, CSKA finally got over the hump. Although they choked away a huge fourth quarter lead to Fenerbahce and needed an overtime-forcing tip-in from Victor Khryapa to give them an extra five minutes, they got the job done. They finally lifted the Euroleague trophy and are in this season’s Final Four as the defending champs. The target is on their back.

Game time: 12:30PM EST, May 19th, 2017

Location: Sinan Erdem Dome — Istanbul, Turkey

How to watch: Euroleague TV Final Four Pass

So what can we expect in this season’s semifinals between the two rivals? Drama, for sure. The two teams met in Round 5, where CSKA won by six in Piraeus. Then the two teams met again in Round 30 and CSKA won again. This time CSKA was at home and they won by four points.

It’s safe to say that when that Round 5 match-up took place, Olympiacos was still finding their identity. This is proven by the fact that they lost at Galatasaray in their following Round 6 match-up.

CSKA Moscow had complete control through three quarters of the Round 5 match-up. They led by 15 at the end of three and were led by hot shooting from 3-point land, which started with their starting backcourt on the night, Aaron Jackson and Nando De Colo. De Colo led the team in scoring with 23 points and shot 2-for-3 from downtown. Jackson was the second leading scorer for CSKA with 15 and shot 3-for-3 from deep. In total, CSKA shot 10-for-21 from the perimeter on the night and valued the ball more as they finished with 18 assists as a team and only 10 turnovers.

Olympiacos won the rebounding battle on the night, 43 to 32, and were carried by Printezis who finished the night with 26 points on 14 shots and had seven rebounds as well. Printezis scored 11 of his 26 in the fourth quarter and played a huge role in The Reds attempt at a comeback.

In the Round 30 match-up in Moscow, CSKA got off to a hot start again as they won the first quarter 25-15 to take control. They were again led by their starting backcourt, although it was a different starting backcourt for this game of De Colo and Milos Teodosic. De Colo finished with 23 points and six assists and Teodosic finished with 23 and four. They were accurate from 3-point land again, shooting 8-for-19 and were nearly perfect from the free throw line, shooting 28-for-29.

However, Olympiacos did force them into more turnovers this game (20), double the amount they committed in Round 5. Olympiacos attacked with more of a team effort in Round 30 as five players finished in double-digits for the Reds. Spanoulis and Ioannis Papapetrou led the way with 16 points apiece, Papanikolaou scored 13 off the bench, and Printezis and Vangelis Mantzaris both finished with 12. They lost the rebounding battle in this game, 28 to 30, but turned the ball over just as much as they did in the Round 5 meeting (17). Olympiacos did not shoot the 3-pointer well in either game: 30 percent in Round 5 and 32 percent in Round 30.

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With both games being remarkably close this year — and with two Greek coaches in Dimitris Itoudis and Ioannis Sfairopoulos being known as experts in planning for opponents and making in-game adjustments — expect this third game to be close as well. If I had to go out on a limb and make a prediction, my pick would be Olympiacos because it’s tough to beat a good team three times in one season and the playoffs showed us that father time hasn’t gotten the better of Spanoulis yet.

And remember, don’t ever bet against Spanoulis. Instead, you might want to bet on him as Olympiacos is seven-to-one to win the Euroleague title.