It did not take long at all for the Quarterfinal Playoffs to send shivers of emotion through the crowds in some major cities on Tuesday . Opening night ended up being everything any fan could have hoped for, with one of the most dramatic comebacks in playoffs history as a highlight, but another pair of squeak-through victories by home teams building tension for the rest of their series. The big story, without doubt, was Partizan over Maccabi Electra 77-85 in Tel Aviv after rallying from 21 points behind. Dusan Kecman was unconscious for Partizan, hitting 7 three-pointers among his 29 points to give his team homecourt advantage in the series. Partizan succeeded where a couple other visitors had to be happy with just scaring their hosts a lot. Instead, hanging on for dear life to victory was Olympiacos, an 83-79 survivor against Prokom as Linas Kleiza piled up 26 points and Milos Teodosic 21. MORE | MVP

Game 2 of the Playoffs divided the race for the Final Four along a pair of distinctly exciting lines on Thursday. Two of last year's semifinalists protected their homecourts enough to move within a victory of returning to the Final Four, while two other winners pulled back from the brink of trouble by dramatically tying up their best-of-five series. Once again, the big story was a turning around of homecourt advantage, in this case involving one of the greatest rivavlries in sports as Real Madrid downed Regal FC Barcelona 63-70 to even their series at 1-1 with Games 3 and 4 coming next week in the Spanish capital. A star was born in that victory, too, as big man Ante Tomic, a midseason signing by Madrid, led the winners with 22 points, 5 rebounds and 4 blocks. MORE | MVP

Paris is a lot harder to reach than any recent Final Four destination after Game 3 on Tuesday denied the first pair of would-be qualifiers their first attempt at making it. For the first time since the Euroleague started holding them in 2005, there have been no sweeps in the Playoffs, which means that all eight quarterfinalists will go to Game 4 on Thursday with visions of the 2010 Final Four still dancing in their heads. Series started being extended on Tuesday with the very first result, Caja Laboral by 66-53 over CSKA as Tiago Splitter had 15 points and Fernando San Emeterio 14 for the winners, who outrebounded their guests 42 to 30. The trend continued with Asseco Prokom downing Olympiacos 81-78 at home behind 18 points each from Daniel Ewing and Qyntel Woods. MORE | MVP

The field for the 2010 Euroleague Basketball Final Four in Paris is set after all four teams with a chance to win their series on Thursday did so in splendid fashion. Three teams from the 2009 edition – Regal Barcelona, Olympiacos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow return – while the spot of the outgoing champion, Panathinaikos, was claimed by the team that knocked the Greens out of the competition, Partizan Belgrade, which makes its first trip to the Final Four in a dozen years. he Thursday action began in the Spanish capital, where 2009 Euroleague MVP Juan Carlos Navarro scored 21 and Ricky Rubio netted a Euroleague career-high 19 as Barcelona bested Real Madrid 78-84. The Final Four will be Barca’s 11th, more than any other team since the format began in 1988. MORE | MVP