By Giannis Rammas/ info@eurohoops.net
With the completion of the EuroLeague regular season, Panathinaikos looked like the most fresh and delicious team perhaps in the entire championship. But when they playoffs began its taste had gotten stale.
In the meantime, Fenerbahce came out of the “OAKA oven” hot, fresh and steamy, carrying a 0 – 2 record on the way back home. And now it threatens to eliminate Panathinaikos with a sweep, serving him the… reheated dish of elimination in front of thousands of raving fans.
Which team will out-cook the other? Which chef will present a game-winning recipe on the floor of “Ulker Arena”? Zeljko Obradovic or Xavi Pascual? Will Fenerbahce finish the series in Istanbul… or will Panathinaikos manage to get revenge… a dish well known as being served cold and force a Game 5?
It all comes down to which team will simply be the “Passenger” and which will be “Lion” of the series. Like the titles of some of the dozens of films that we could access with one lick on our personal touchscreen monitor in the aircraft of Turkish Airlines that brought us to Istanbul. Which one to pick first, really? Not that it’s easy to make a choice in the 1 hour and 5 minutes that the trip lasted. At least we managed to grab a bite and drink a soda, that the super polite flight crew offered us.
Now let’s see if we will wait until after Game 4 to meet them again or if the series end with a sweep in Game 3.