Do Olympiacos have enough weapons to win the EuroLeague? / News - Basketnews.com

In what will be remembered as one of the most iconic Game 5s in EuroLeague history, Olympiacos Piraeus beat AS Monaco and clinched their ticket to the Final Four sending Peace and Friendship to a complete frenzy.

Free throws this season

76%13,8Points made:13,8Accuracy:75,8%Place in standings:3Record max:27Record min:5Most made FTs:Konstantinos SloukasTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

With both teams knowing each other perfectly well after playing 4 games before, it was a matchup between experience and talent with many small details that had a huge influence. Let's go over the main keys of Olympiacos' win.

The star of the first quarter was the experienced forward Kostas Papanikolaou with his impressive job on defense. The Greek forward didn't let Monaco's second scoring option Dwayne Bacon get in the rhythm.

The American was physically pushed around from the first minutes, which led him to miss a couple of shots.

Finally, everything culminated with irritated Bacon shoving Papanikolaou and committing an offensive foul and then getting rejected emphatically in the fast break.

Bacon finished the game with 12 points, but it took him 12 shots to score those. It was a huge win for Olympiacos and Papanikolaou since it meant Mike James had to do much more and expect help from other teammates.

And they delivered. As usual, James was a bit more of a creator in the first half, looking more for his buddies than forcing shots by himself. Olympiacos were often switching on top pick&rolls which meant guards had to front against Monaco's bigs, and a low man had to be in the middle ready to help.

With James able to throw bullet passes to corners, the helpers couldn't come back before the guests' shooters let it fly.

This was a risk from Olympiacos, which didn't work out in the 1st half - focusing on James and passes to inside while giving up pretty open looks from deep. Monaco scored 35 points in the 2nd period.

The only risk that worked this game was Icing the Side pick&roll with Motiejunas on the court and allowing him to pop and shoot 3-pointers. Even though he hit one triple this game, it was the only one he managed to score throughout the series from 8 tries, making this a successful tactic.

This Game 5 will be remembered as an instant classic not only for the outcome or the wild things around the court. The shotmaking was incredible as both teams displayed maximum concentration and enormous offensive potential.

Every risk was punished. Guards that are not that stable from deep made one three-pointer after another when the other team went under or not closed out hard enough. Paris Lee, Thomas Walkup, Shaquille McKissic - everyone had a big game and especially a great 2nd quarter.

McKissic scored 16 in 10 minutes with James not respecting his shot and then later Monaco making two defensive errors against him.

In a match where so much was decided by offensive improvisation, we got an unexpected hero for Olympiacos.

Thomas Walkup, just like in Game 1, played a crucial role while doing absolutely everything on the court.

He was making threes versus the under coverage, attacking with snake move against Motiejunas in pick&roll, scoring 1-on-1 in midrange off the dribble, and obviously, sneaking in for the steal and a monster jam in transition, which finally brought back the parity in this game after 20 minutes of Monaco's lead.

For the visitors, instead, everything was going just like they had planned. Mike James was finally heating up after passing the ball more in the 1st half.

The American didn't care about the double teams late in the possession or the difficulty of shots.

With 5 minutes left in this epic series and everything up for grabs, the stage was set for the perfect ending. Down 1, the Greeks turned to Kostas Sloukas and their most successful set in this series - Spanish pick&roll.

Olympiacos kept feeding their hot hand Sloukas, who knows a thing or two about closing out important games with his IQ. He poured in 13 points over the last tally and finished the duel with 15 points (1/3 2PT, 2/2 3PT, 7/8 FT), 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 turnovers, and 22 PIR.

With 1:25 to go came an interesting decision from Monaco - down only by one shot, they decided to trap the ball at halfcourt and gamble for the steal.

Dorsey took a bold decision to pull the trigger with 15 seconds left on the shot clock, but it turned out to be the most important shot in this series.

Down 6, everyone in the building knew James was going to shoot. He targeted Sloukas and got the switch he wanted, but Hall came to set another screen, so now James was against Fall, making his crucial triple much more difficult.

James bricked it, the shot clock didn't reset, and Piraeus started to celebrate their highly-awaited come back to the Final Four.

In Belgrade, they will meet defending champions Anadolu Efes with Larkin and Micic in front. Olympiacos had a good repetition for this matchup with Mike James. We can't see them as underdogs since Efes haven't been as solid as they were last year.

However, one-game elimination leaves a lot of space for unexpected events.

Full breakdown:

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