The two best teams in EuroLeague, Real Madrid and Panathinaikos, will compete for the 2024 EuroLeague Championship

There is one main takeaway from yesterday’s semifinal games: Real Madrid and Panathinaikos are the two best teams in EuroLeague. In terms of talent, depth, organization, and approach these two teams were clearly the best in EuroLeague this season. Both teams hit their opponents in the mouth early, and even though their games tightened following adjustments from Fenerbahce and Olympiacos respectively they were never able to fully overcome the talent gap. 

With Europe’s best facing off tomorrow, we should hopefully have the best on-court spectacle of the Final Four so far. Of course, Panathinaikos' unapologetic and often controversial owner, Dimitrios Giannakopoulos, predicted this final earlier in the season - something BasketNews pointed out at today’s championship game press conference. 

Both teams' journey to this final has differed. Real Madrid were favorites before a game even began this season. They have met every expectation so far and at times, even exceeded them with their incredible play. Should they win tomorrow, they will go down as one of the greatest EuroLeague teams of all time. 

Panathinaikos is in their first season of the Ergin Ataman era and constructed an entirely new roster over the summer. Expectations were high but tempered by the challenge of building a brand new contending team in one offseason -- something that many have tried but few have accomplished.

Questions hung over the Greens all season and after a middling start where they were in search of answers, they eventually found them and ended up here. A victory will deliver Panathinaikos their long-coveted seventh EuroLeague title and anoint Ataman as the greatest coach of this era. His record will speak for itself: qualification for four of the last five EuroLeague Final Fours, and three titles. 

Real Madrid and Panathinaikos set to clash in 2024 EuroLeague Final

As for the game itself, it should be a close one. These two teams split their season series with Real Madrid winning in Round 13 in OAKA by 12 thanks to strong performances from Mario Hezonja, Dzanan Musa, and Gabriel Deck -- the Argentinian is unfortunately injured for the Final Four. 

Panathinaikos got revenge in Round 27 in Madrid, defeating Los Blancos by a final score of 97-86. Mathias Lessort dominated in this one -- and had a strong showing in their defeat against Madrid earlier in the season. But his combination of energy, athleticism, and overall mobility caused problems for Real Madrid’s Edy Tavares who prefers a more stationary and old-school game from the center position. 

“It’s a big challenge for me to face a big man like Edy,” Lessort told FanSided at today’s EuroLeague Championship game press conference. “He’s a guy who every year can win Defensive Player of the Year he just changes the course of the game, the way you prepare for the game. All I can say is that I will give everything I have on the court, I will fight, I will try to make his job as hard as possible. And he will try to make my job as hard as possible and you know I will just do everything I can do for my team to win and you know I don’t see it as a personal matchup.” 

The matchup down low and in the paint will be a crucial one. For everything Panathinaikos has in regards to overall talent, they bring plenty of physicality to the game as well. Not just with Lessort, but their entire squad embraces an aggressive style and has the talent to enhance it as well. Something Real Madrid head coach Chus Mateo discussed with FanSided in today’s press conference.

“We will be stupid if we only think on Mathias Lessort,” Mateo said. “We have to stop too many strengths that Coach Ataman has in his team. So we know that Mathias Lessort is very good, Sloukas is a leader, Nunn is a great scorer, Grant is a great player, Grigonis and Mitoglou all of them are great players and we have to consider all these kind of things.”

Real Madrid and Panathinaikos were our predictions for the championship game -- that’s not a victory lap, we got plenty of things wrong this season, like A LOT of things wrong this season -- and our pick was for Real Madrid to prevail. We will stick to that here. Real Madrid suffered a dip in form during the second half of the season that made plenty wonder and some even hope that they would come up short. But their first half against Olympiacos last night was a stark reminder of simply how much better they are than everyone else. They need just one more game like that to lift their second straight EuroLeague championship.