Panathinaikos advanced to the Euroleague final on Friday beating Siena 77-69 in the first semifinal of the Final-Four at Barcelona.
The Greeks, considered the favourites in this Final-Four, will be able to aim at their sixth Euroleague trophy, facing one of Real Madrid or Maccabi Tel Aviv on Sunday evening.
The more experienced and significantly more determined Greens overcame the resistance of the side that had eliminated Olympiakos in the quarterfinals thanks to a good all-around play.
Despite being beaten in rebounds (43 to 33) as the Italians were particularly acute in offensive rebounds during the first half, the Greek champions were ultra tight in defence in the second half and strangled the Siena attack on several occasions.
Led by an impressive Nick Calathes (with 17 points) and assisted by Mike Batiste (16) and Antonis Fotsis (14), Panathinaikos responded to the zone defence of Siena and dominated the second and the third periods in scoring to take the ticket to Sunday's final.
Siena went ahead in the first period with a 24-17 score, but Panathinaikos turned things around midway through the second to turn a 30-24 Siena lead into a 40-36 half-time score for the Greek side.
The players of coach Zeljko Obradovic kept their collective foot firmly on the gas and led by as many as 12 points (52-40) before Siena made a last-ditch effort to reach the final, but to no avail.
Panathinaikos held on despite a relatively quiet game by their captain, Dimitris Diamantidis (8 points), and reached yet one more Euroleague final, the third in the last five years.
