Greek League finals, Game 3: May 27, 2012 - Greece - Welcome to EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL

May 22, 2013

Greek League finals, Game 3: May 27, 2012

Turkish Airlines Euroleague champion Olympiacos Piraeus moved within one victory of its first Greek League title in 15 years by defeating archrival Panathinaikos 84-72 on Sunday in Game 3 of the best-of-five finals. A 16-2 run bridging the final two quarters restored what had been game-long double-digit leads by Olympiacos, which now holds a 2-1 edge in the series. Olympiaocs has not been in the same situation, ahead 2-1, in at least five years in a row of finals against the Greens. Panathinaikos won the last three finals series 3-1 to and led the two before that 2-1 each before Olympiacos tied in Game 4 and a fifth game was won by the Greens. Game 4 will be Wednesday at OAKA, the home court of Panathinaikos. On Sunday, Olympiacos led from tipoff to buzzer at Peace and Friendship Stadium. Final Four heroes Georgios Printezis and Vassilis Spanoulis paced the winners with 16 and 15 points, respectively, while Marko Keselj scored all 10 of his in the game's first few minutes. The Reds had 8 different shooters contribute to 11-for-22 three-point shooting, including 2 strikes each by Printezis, Kostas Papanikolaou and Martynas Gecevicius. With Keselj scoring 10 points, the Reds raced to a 12-3 lead and took their first double-digit advantage at 17-6 on a Pero Antic three-pointer. The same difference held at the end of one quarter, 29-18, as Joey Dorsey hit 2 free throws. The advantage grew to 15 points, 37-22, midway through the second quarter on a triple by Printezis. The gap hit 20 points before Dimitris Diamantidis scored the last basket before halftime for Panathinaikos, although Olympiacos remained in charge, 53-35. Panathinaikos came out strong on defense in the third quarter, holding the Reds to 4 points during more than 6 minutes. At the same time, the Greens got points from 5 different players in a 4-14 run that suddenly lowered the difference to single digits, 57-49. In the last 3 minutes of the third quarter, however, Olympiacos answered with a 12-2 blast sparked by three-pointers from Printezis and Papanikolaou. When the Reds scored the first 4 points of the final quarter, as well, their lead was back over 20 points, to 73-51. Now it was the Olympiacos defense that dominated, holding Panathinaikos to a single field goal in 6 minutes that bridged the final quarters. Panathinaikos tried to rally behind David Logan, but could not catch up in the time left. Diamantidis and Mike Batiste led the Greens with 12 points each, but 22 turnovers as compared to 14 for Olympiacos hurt the nine-time defending Greek League champions and put them within one defeat of seeing their streak broken.

Record	Team	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 2	Game 3
2	Olympiacos (1) -Final	84	79	84	May 30	*June 2
1	Panathinaikos (2)	78	81	72	-	-
2	Kolossos VAP (3) -3rd place	71	64	70	71	63
3	Panionios (5)	68	81	66	88	73

Finals and 3rd place Playoffs round games
Game 1	Olympiacos vs. Panathinaikos	84-78	May 21
Game 1	Kolossos VAP vs. Panionios	71-68	May 9
Game 2	Panathinaikos vs. Olympiacos	81-79	May 24
Game 2	Panionios vs. Kolossos VAP	81-64	May 12
Game 3	Olympiacos vs. Panathinaikos	84-72	May 27
Game 3	Kolossos VAP vs. Panionios	70-66	May 16
Game 4	Panathinaikos vs. Olympiacos	0-0	May 30
Game 4	Panionios vs. Kolossos VAP	88-71	May 19
Game 5	Olympiacos vs. Panathinaikos	0-0	*June 2
Game 5	Kolossos VAP vs. Panionios	63-73	May 22