[McDunkin]

CSKA Moscow stars Andrei Kirilenko and Viktor Khryapa on Monday blamed themselves for the dramatic defeat to Olympiacos in the Euroleague final, saying team complacency let the trophy slip.

CSKA blew a 19-point lead to lose Sunday’s final in Istanbul 62-61 to the Greeks, finished off by a last-second layup by Georgios Printenzis.

CSKA dominated the first two quarters built up what some thought was an insurmountable lead, which the Greeks reduced to a single point in the dying seconds to set up the grandstand finale.

Former Utah Jazz forward Kirilenko, who was named Euroleague MVP this season, insisted the Russians only had themselves to blame.

"You can’t let your opponents catch up like that, after having a 19 points lead, " Kirilenko told RIA Novosti.

"We gave up the initiative in the third quarter and didn’t control the game, waiting for the match to finish instead of playing. We can only bow down before Olympiacos. They showed a strong will and rescued this match with great basketball, especially in the second half. "

Kirilenko said the defeat was even harder to bear than that of his national team in the semifinal of the European championship against France, 71-79, in September.

CSKA captain Viktor Khryapa admitted his team was unable to withstand the pressure of the Greek club.

"We felt a bit relaxed and Olympiacos pulled eight points back and then clicked into gear, which makes any team hard to stop," Khryapa said.

"We didn’t even know whom to mark, also considering at that moment they were playing without Vassilis Spanoulis, more like a team and not through one single player."

CSKA forward Alexei Shved also said this loss was "the most tragic in his career."

Olympiacos guard Spanoulis, scoring 15 points in the decider, was named the Final Four MVP for the second time in his career.

Olympiacos took second title in their second final appearance, their first championship coming in 1997.

The dramatic loss denied CSKA a seventh crown in its 12th final appearance.

http://en.ria.ru/sports/20120514/173440289.html

 

 

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

Did not get a chance to watch it, hopefully will catch a replay later on. Sounds like an incredible championship game, though. Down 19, coming back on a last second shot? Looks like Euroleague is where amazing happens, too. Heard really good things about Kostas Papanikolaou, maybe European Baller was onto something, lol.

Know that Papanikolaou did not miss a FG in either Final Four game, plus had 18 points in the final. Seems like this guy is definitely draft material, competing at a high level in an extremely pressurized situation. Wonder what Aran’s thoughts are after catching him in Turkey?

Also heard that Vassilis Spanoulis was incredibly clutch. Have no idea if European Baller was even close to right calling him the best PG in the world, but I think he more than likely did not get a fair shake in the NBA. Seems like the feeling might have been mutual and that he did not enjoy his time in the league, but odds are that he could help a team considerably. Much like I always thought Juan Carlos Navarro would have remained a major spark plug for the Grizzlies (different players, my point is that both would help NBA teams).

Seems like Giorgios Printezis of Olympiacos is the hero with his game winner (with an assist from Spanoulis) and that Ramunas Siskauskas (2008 Euroleague MVP) missed two crucial FT’s that could have given CSKA more of an advantage. Also heard really good things about Milos Teodosic, CSKA’s PG, who seemed to have less than his best performance in the finals.

Really interested to see what happens to Andrei Kirilenko. Will he come back to the NBA? Seems like he had a major impact in Euroleague. He was also a great NBA player who could still definitely make an impact (plus give Deron Williams that much more incentive to sign in New Jersey. Just saying), but I wonder if he will just choose to stay and attempt a Euroleague Championship?

Now Olympiacos has another challenge in trying to take home the Greek A1 league title. Panathinaikos has won 9 titles in a row and 11 of the last 12. The last 6 have been with them beating Olympiacos in the finals. It is a 5 game series for the title and I have just heard that fans go crazy. Panathinaikos may have not been able to win the Euroleague, but it seems like the Greek league is a different ball game. Olympiacos must want to win this title just as much as Euroleague. Would be a major downer to win the Euroleague, but let your arch rival win their tenth title in a row.

[avavalisParticipant]

I saw it all and I can tell you one thing .. those youngsters (Papanikolaou,Sloukas,Mantzaris) EuroBaller mentions really played great … in fact more than the half of the turnaround was achieved by the last two with printezis,kyle hines and sharpshooting forward marko keselj…especially sloukas smothered teodosic a lot in the 3rd after allowig 3 threepointers in the first half and he looked comfortable running the offense….Papanikolaou was CLUTCH he drilled one three over the monstrous hands of kirilenko and made two other clutch free throws that brought olympiakos down to one before siskauskas missed the 2 fts…also watch out for alexey shved … he is nba material

[A Lil EnglishParticipant]

I would really like to see what Papanikolaou could do in the NBA given a fair chance. I like his game and size at the 3.

[BrxaParticipant]

I’d say a lot of those young guys could play in the NBA.  Papanikolau, Shved and Keselj particularly.  Krstic, Kirilenko and Spanoulis as well.  Joey Dorsey was great in the semifinal, but invisible the last game, and Gordon didn’t have a great game either.

[Bill Walton’s KneesParticipant]

 I remember this site hyping Shved up a couple of years ago along with some Ante Tomic guy that I haven’t heard of since.

[McDunkin]

 Shved is only a few hundred protien shakes away from being a player in the league. He always did good things with his extremely limited playing time for CSKA and did great when playing with his own age group but for some reason until these past two season they gave him scrub minutes.

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