LKL

Olympiacos has reached the Euroleague final-four after a season that, let’s face it, everyone expected them to be there. It took 4 games in the quarterfinals to eliminate Asseco Prokom with 3-1 and return for a second year in a row to the biggest event of European club basketball.

Prokom is a strong team led by an amazing young coach, Tomas Pacesas, but if we want to talk honestly, they couldn’t win Olympiacos in a best-of-five series. Panagiotis Giannakis has built a team that is ready to win it all this year and Prokom was just an obstacle in the way, an obstacle that was meant to be surpassed.

Olympiacos were rather sure they’d win the series and that was obvious in the first 3 games, when the team didn’t play very well. Especially during the third game (the first one in Poland) Olympiacos had an awful first half that cost him the victory and the sweeping of the series. It all changed in the fourth game, where the Reds played hard from the beginning and showed who was the boss of the series, leaving no doubt in Prokom’s mind that it was a lost cause the one the Polish were fighting for.

In SEF stadium it is almost impossible for Olympiacos to lose, so the 2-0 start of the series was almost sure from the… draw. Olympiacos is 10-0 in Euroleague and 11-0 in the Greek Championship in SEF this year. That combines to an amazing 21-0 that shows vividly that the Reds are invincible in their own home court.

When Olympiacos decided to play to an upper tempo, it was the end for Prokom, after an amazing year for them. Tomas Pacesas is only 39 years old, but is showing signs of a very big coach. Prokom is better each year, he takes almost 100% from each of his main players, the team knows exactly which games they need to win and when they should try harder and it’s obvious he has a bright future. If I had to make a prediction, I’d say that in 3-4 years he’ll be considered as one of the elite European coaches.

Back to Olympiacos now. Giannakis is in his second year with the team (he actually replaced Gershon in February of 2008, but I’m only counting the years he has started with the team from the summer train camp) and his Olympiacos is a dominant team that is here to stay. Last year he was in the final four, missing the final for just two points (in what I consider to be the best game of 2008-09) over Bourousis missed hook against Panathinaikos, but this year the team is back to win it all.

One of the main factors for this year’s amazing Olympiacos is, of course, Linas Kleiza. The Lithuanian came to Greece from the NBA and has already conquered Europe. It is likely that in Euroleague voting Aleks Maric will win the MVP honors of the year, but I believe that the real MVP is Kleiza.

Kleiza had double digits in points in the first 18 games of the season (and 19 out of 20 so far). That is an amazing record, compared only to Euroleague’s finest scorers. Well, Kleiza is one of them after this achievement. And trust me, that’s not a club that you can easily access!

In Euroleague history (the 10 years the competition is running) only 5 players have had more that 18 games in a row (without missing any games and starting from the 1st game of the season) with 10 or more points in each and every one of them. It was Dejan Bodiroga of Panathinaikos in 2001-02 that finished all 22 games of the season with 11 or more points. That same year, it was Dimos Dikoudis of AEK Athens that had the first 19 games of the season with 10 or more points. It was Marcus Brown of CSKA Moscow in 2003-04, that started the season with 10 or more points in the first 19 games (he went on to finish all 21 games of the season with double digits, but missed a game after the first 19). It was Tanoka Beard of your Zalgiris Kaunas in 2004-05 that started and finished the season in double digits, having 20 games in a row with 11 or more points.

Well, I mentioned 4 of them, but I bet that you can easily find which one I left out to mention last. Come on… the trophy is called “Alphonso Ford Trophy” for a reason! The late (and great) Alphonso Ford is by far the best scorer in Euroleague history. He played three seasons in Euroleague, he didn’t miss any games and he had 10 or more points in each and every game of every season! He went 12 of 12 in 2000-01, 20 of 20 in 2001-02 and 22 of 22 in 2001-02, summing up to an unbelievable 54 games in a row (without missing any games in between) with double digits in points! Simply… respect for the greatest of them all!

There are a few more players that finished a season with 10 or more points in every game but either missed some games in between or had less than 18 games during the season. Marc Salyers Chorale Roanne had more than 13 points in each of his 14 games in 2007-08. Charles Smith of Scavolini Pesaro in 2004-05 had 20 games with more than 10 points but missed games 12 and 13. Lynn Greer of Idea Slask in 2003-04 had double digits in all 14 games of his season. Dejan Bodiroga of Barcelona had more than 10 points in all of his 17 games in 2003-04. Fred House of Partizan had more than 10 points in all of his 13 games with the team in 2003-04. Marcus Goree had more than 13 points in each of the 14 games he played with Opel Skyliners in 2001-02. Sani Becirovic of Union Olimpija had more than 12 points in each one of his 15 games in 2000-01. Dejan Tomasevic of Buducnost had more than 16 points in each of his 12 games in 2000-01.

Of course there are those that came close, but had their run broken at some point:
13 games – Ruslan Avleev (2001-02), Emanuel Ginobili (2001-02), Nikola Vujcic (2003-04), Antonio Granger (2003-04), Anthony Parker (2004-05), Igor Rakocevic (2007-08) 12 games – Gregor Fucka (2000-01), Tyus Edney (2001-02 and 2002-03), Antonis Fotsis (2002-03)

From this year on, Linas Kleiza is in an elite club that numbers 6 members! If that’s not a huge accomplishment for a 24 year old player in his first Euroleague season, I don’t know what is! Olympiacos is heading to the final four in Paris feeling confident and strong. Whether they reach the top or not, we’ll find out in one month. But the Lithuanian star is showing the way.

Till next time,
Think basketball,
Nikos Kousoulis
nkbasket82@gmail.com