Two Germans in the final: Basketball world champion Daniel Theis reached the final round of the Euroleague on Tuesday evening, a little later Tibor Pleiß solved the last ticket with defending champion Panathinaikos Athens.
Monaco won the decisive quarter-final game against the Spanish top club FC Barcelona on Tuesday with 85:84 (45:39) and won the turbulent series for itself: Monaco had already run 2-0, Barcelona then forced the fifth duel with two victories.
Athens won game five against Anadolu Istanbul with 75:67 (41:30). Panathinaikos now meets Fenerbahce Istanbul at the final tournament in Abu Dhabi (May 23 to 25), Monaco is dealing with Piraeus in his semi -finals with the main round winner. Athens is a record winner with five titles, Monaco is still waiting for the first triumph in the premier class.
The two Germans remained unobtrusive. Theis received unusually little playing time with about ten minutes and contributed four points and two rebounds. The 33-year-old, who returned to Europe after eight NBA years in February, was in the shadow of his center colleague Georgios Papagiannis (17 points) that evening. In the end, the best thrower for Monaco was Mike James with 20 points, for Barcelona Kevin Punter (19) led the scorer list.
As recently, Pleiß played a supporting role near Athens, only 1:44 minutes he stood on the pitch and stayed without points. The Turk Cedi Osman (28 points) was most successful for Panathinaikos, for Istanbul, Elijah Bryant (16 points) hit the most.