By Gianfranco Bina, Hellenic Hoops
Here we are, finally? it?s playoff time! Panathinaikos, Marousi, Aris, Iraklis, PAOK, AEK, Peristeri and Olympiacos will be the protagonists of the final laps of this exciting and controversial season.
This has been the worst championship of the last twenty years considering the level of the teams (proved by the awful behaviour in Europe of our team, excluding Marousi and Aris), but at the same time it has been the most incredible league ever. We have two historical powerhouses like AEK and Olympiacos which won?t have the home-court advantage (AEK finished the regular season at the 6th place with a 14-12 record, while Olympiacos fought till the end to grab the last place in the last season: 13-13). Marousi has been leading the regular season for 24 rounds, losing the first place in the final sprint (something similar to what happened to Peristeri B.C. during the season 2000-01), giving to the Greens the first place, a first place that will mean Panathinaikos ? Olympiacos in the quarters of final. We will have three teams from Thessaloniki in the grid, Aris and Iraklis with the home-court advantage, and PAOK: the explosion of the new names of the Hellenic basketball, if Kommatos (Aris) is the perfect outsider, the young army of Iraklis (Diamantidis, Iliadis, Papadopoulos) will face the young army of PAOK (Vasileiadis, Vasilopoulos, Mavrokefalidis) in a pure ?Macedonian derby?.
Panathinaikos-Olympiacos, ?the? derby; Iraklis-PAOK, the fratricide battle of Thessaloniki? and that?s not all folks! Marousi and Peristeri can be considered ?the new which advances?, two suburbs of the Great Athens that didn?t exist in basketball some years ago but reached the Greek elite: Marousi is the future, we hope Peristeri will have a future (always for the financial problems that have been killing this club since the summer 2001), and theirs can be considered a minor rivalry between the giants? battles of Greece. Everything should be a derby, in this charming post-season: Aris Thessaloniki and AEK Athens, the last Greek team which won a European competition (FIBA Europe Cup 2003) and the first one which raised a cup (Cups Winners? Cup 1968). Two historical squads, united by the same colours: yellow and black.
Panathinaikos (1) ? Olympiacos (8)
Unpredictable, at all. Panathinaikos got two victories in the regular season, 76-60 at home with excellent performance of Alvertis, Hatzivrettas, Lakovic and Tsartsaris; Olympiacos collapsed in the 2nd half (scoring only 19 points, 7 in the 4th period). Piraeus lost at home too, 55-57 in a nervous, defensive game: winning, the Reds would have reached the 7th place, avoiding Panathinaikos in the 1st round (but who knows, maybe Olympiacos thought it would have been better to meet the Greens in a best-of-three series instead of in a best-of-five). Panathinaikos is slightly stronger than Olympiacos, the main difference is the balance found by the Greens during the season, while the Reds have changed a lot, three coaches in eight months, players arriving and leaving like in a Grand Hotel. Will be able Tomic to restore to health the poor Olympiacos in these few days? If yes, and if the Reds will reach the semis, Piraeus will become automatically a serious contender for the championship? Panathinaikos 65% of possibilities to advance, 35% the Reds: the home-court advantage, most of all with the hot atmosphere that the supporters of these squads can create when the rivals are on court. Hoping, of course, no-one will exaggerate.
Iraklis (4) ? PAOK (5)
Another derby, another big passion. The crazy Greeks of Iraklis made the biggest surprise of the season, a team with a so low budget wasn?t predicted to reach the 4th place in the regular season, but this is ?attitude?. They want, they can, that?s the Iraklis? password. Attitude or not, Iraklis anyway has an excellent starting five, with the best PG-C axis of the Greek league (Diamantidis to Papadopoulos), and between them the great experience of Bucknall and the amazing guard Iliadis, the most improved player of the championship. Strong defence is the key of this time, and it?s well known what defence mean in the crucial games. PAOK, instead, loves to attack the basket with the instinctive couple of guards composed by Mulaomerovic and Vasileiadis: it will be a series between two different philosophies, slow tempo and concreteness against running basketball and instinct. Normally, Iraklis would be favourite: Diamantidis and Papadopoulos are enough experienced without being so old (both them are 24 years old), at an international level too. PAOK answers with old foxes like Mulaomerovic and Jurkovic, while an mathematical unknown will be Vasileiadis: will he be ready for the first playoff played as a protagonist? The young guard after an amazing start of the season slowed down his pace, will he be able to find again his energies? 80 (but probably 120) minutes of passion are waiting the two teams from Thessaloniki. And every minute broadcasted by the satellite channel ?ERT SAT? can?t be lost by the basketball fans all around the world.
Marousi (2) ? Peristeri (7)
Similar destinies for these clubs. Young teams, new realities for the Hellenic basketball, both ambitious, both coming from two suburbs of the Great Athens, both desiring to capture public and interests in the restricted space left by Panathinaikos, Olympiakos and AEK. Main difference, Marousi is healthy while Peristeri could disappear after the summer, strangled by chronicle financial problems. Marousi normally wouldn?t have problems to eliminate the Princes of West, the Giannakis? squad is definitively stronger and deeper, and the players can be concentrated only on the games they have to play, while the Pedoulakis? band is thinking to the bread too. But we cannot forget the nature and the pride of Peristeri, which have made us used to see miracles in the playoff. Only the delusion to have lost the 1st place in the last two games of the regular season could be a distraction for Marousi, that has every right to be considered (and to consider itself) a favourite for the championship 2004. Spanoulis, the revelation of this season, will play with the soul excited by the tryout he will make during the summer for the Detroit Pistons; Marousi can dream for a spot in the Euroleague 2004-05 (it seems Hellas will have four teams again, after the pressure made by the ESAKE: with three spots, but already given to Panathinaikos, Olympiakos and AEK, the championship is meaningless considering the qualification to the Euroleague, and that?s the key Greek authorities are pushing to have a 4th team representing the country in the future), but the first target is the triumph in the league. After a Saporta Cup (2001) and a FIBA Europe League final (2004), Marousi is ready for a great achievement: difficulty this Peristeri will be a serious obstacle in this march.
Aris (3) ? AEK (6)
The derby in yellow-black, the desire of the Thessaloniki?s squad to return to the elite to whom it belongs against the AEK?s last hopes. The Athenians lost Horace Jenkins, released for disciplinary reasons and will continue with Nikos Zisis and Sotiris Nikolaidis in point-guard, a difficult decision that can be read in two ways: 1. AEK renounced to the championship, freeing the club?s cash department of a weighty contract; 2. AEK had courage and dignity to move away a player who has created problems in the dressing-room of the team and arrived to insult rudely coach Katsikaris.
Aris? basketball is the most particular of Greece, a sort of ?NCAA style? organized by the American coach Charles Barton, and on court the clear leadership of the US band Smush Parker, Ryan Stack and Toby Bailey, well supported by the best offensive indigenous player (Nestoras Kommatos) and a spectacular (but maybe not so concrete) center like Fedor Likholitov. A pure talented team, that likes to win scoring one point more than the opponents, instead of suffering one point less. AEK prefers to control the rhythm (most of all now that Jenkins isn?t anymore in the team) and to clasp the meshes of the defence, having much more weight in the paint with Glyniadakis, Papaioakeim, Tsiaras, Sekulic). Normally Aris for the home-court advantage and the amount of talent, and because this AEK doesn?t seem to have the same untamed nature of these ?AEK? of the past which could compensate the lack of talent with a never-died heart.
May 3, 2004
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