Italian League Semifinals, Game 3: May 26-27, 2008
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The Italian League finals will feature defending champion Montepaschi Siena and Lottomatica Roma, trying for its first "scudetto" in 25 seasons, after both teams posted no-doubt-about-it 3-0 sweeps in their respective semifinal series Montepaschi finished off Armani Jeans Milano with a resounding 99-76 victory in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal. All-Euroleague second-team center Ksistof Lavrinovic led the way with 22 points. After having been eliminated in the semifinals each of the previous three seasons, Roma broke through to the final round with a 77-70 victory over Air Avellino in their third semifinal game. Roma led by as much as 28 points with 12 minutes left, but had to withstand a late Avellino surge to win. Roko Ukic led Roma with 12 points, while Ibby Jaaber added 11. The two new finalists had also faced each other in last season's domestic semifinals, but after Roma took an upset road victory in Game 1 in Siena, Montepaschi won the next three in a row and continued to the trophy.
Montepaschi swept its third consecutive playoff series dating back to last season’s final by pounding Armani Jeans Milano 99-76 on Monday. Dusan Vukcevic hit 3 first-half threes to keep Milano within 44-42 at halftime and a Mindaugas Katelynas triple put the visitors up 53-54 midway through the third quarter. Three-pointers from Terell McIntyre and Bootsy Thornton started and finished a 10-0 Montepaschi charge as the hosts answered by taking the lead for good. Free throws by Rimas Kaukenas increased the lead to double figures as the defending champs settled into a 67-57 lead after 30 minutes. Lavrinovic and Kaukenas combined for all the Montepaschi points during a 10-2 fourth-quarter run that broke the game open. Lavrinovic led the winners with 22 points and 8 rebounds, Romain Sato netted 21, McIntyre recorded 19 points and 8 assists and Kaukenas and Shaun Stonerook added 10 points apiece. Katelynas and Ansu Sesay scored 14 each for Milano, Melvin Booker and Travis Watson had 12 apiece and Danilo Gallinari 11 in defeat. .
Ukic scored the game's first baskets and Roberto Gabini the first three-pointer as Roma raced ahead 7-2. Avellino managed to tie 9-9 on a triple by Marques Green, but Gabini sparked an 8-0 run by Roma in which Ukic hit shots twice again on the way to a 22-9 first-quarter finish. Jabber's back-to-back baskets led to an 10-0 start to the second quarter that gave Roma a 32-9 edge. The gap kept widening on triples by Jabber and Rodrigo De la Fuente to a halftime difference of 46-20. Jabber's next basket, early in the second half, produced the game's highest lead, 50-22, matched thrice again on triples by David Hawkins and Pietro Aradori, the last of those at 61-33. Avellino had already started following the lead of scoring ace Pete Lisicky, however, and his own pair of three-pointers let the guests cut the spread to 64-44 after 30 minutes. Lisicky kept firing away until his third, fourth and fifth triples in the span of 90 seconds made it 71-61 with 2 minutes left. Hawkins stepped up with 5 points in a row for Roma to end any notion of an upset. He and Erazem Lorbek finished with 10 points each for the winners. Lisicky scored 22 of his 24 points for Avellino in the last 13 minutes, while teammate Devin Smith added 17.
| Semifinal Playoffs, best of 5 games |
| Record | Team | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Game 5 | | 3 | Montepaschi Siena (1) | 75 | 82 | 99 | x | x | | 0 | AJ Milano (5) | 71 | 69 | 76 | x | x | | 3 | Lottomatica Roma (2) | 68 | 85 | 77 | x | x | | 0 | Air Avellino (3) | 63 | 78 | 70 | x | x |
| Semifinal games | | Game 1 | Montepaschi Siena vs. AJ Milano | 75-71 | May 22 | | Game 1 | Lottomatica Roma vs. Air Avellino | 68-63 | May 23 | | Game 2 | AJ Milano vs. Montepaschi Siena | 69-82 | May 24 | | Game 2 | Air Avellino vs. Lottomatica Roma | 78-85 | May 25 | | Game 3 | Montepaschi Siena vs. AJ Milano | 99-76 | May 26 | | Game 3 | Lottomatica Roma vs. Air Avellino | 77-70 | May 27 |
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