By Kostas Giataganas/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos and Xavi Pascual will be in the playoffs with only one goal: to advance to the Final Four in Belgrade. In the series against Real, the Greens are aiming at a big comeback since 2012, while the Catalan is after his own comeback, as his last Final Four was in 2014 with Barcelona.
Pascual will be leading a team into the EuroLeague’s quarterfinal stage for the 11th consecutive season, the same time he’s been on the bench as head coach.
Since the 2007/2008 season, the Catalan has been present every season, with his streak not being threatened by any of the other coaches, since the next in line is Pablo Laso, who will be in the playoffs for the sixth season in a row.
As for the 45-year-old coach’s qualification-elimination record, it’s pretty even with five appearances in the Final Four (with one trophy) and five eliminations.
See below how Xavi Pascual has fared in the playoffs every season, from 2008 and his very first appearance with Barcelona, up to last season with Panathinaikos.
2007/2008 (vs Maccabi 1-2): The first (bitter) taste
Maccabi-Barcelona 81-75
Barcelona-Maccabi 83-74
Maccabi-Barcelona 88-75
Having only been the head coach for a few months, the Catalan appeared in a playoff series for the first time in his career. The opponent was Maccabi, who knocked him out of the Final Four in 2-1 victories, since they capitalized on their home court advantage with an 81-75 win in Game 1 and an 88-75 win in Game 3, while Barca had prevailed in between on their home court with 83-74.
2008/2009 (vs Tau 3-2): A thriller qualification
Barcelona-Tau 75-84
Barcelona-Tau 85-62
Tau-Barcelona 69-62
Tau-Barcelona 63-84
Barcelona-Tau 78-62
One of the most thrilling playoff series was the one between Barcelona and Tau (now Baskonia) in 2009. Barca had the home court advantage, but the Basques immediately turned the series upside down (75-84) and got a breath (win) away from qualifying in 2-1 thanks to the 69-62 win in Game 3. The total comeback was made with an imposing away win in Vitoria (63-84), before the 78-62 win inside the Palau and the 3-2 that got coach Pascual his first qualification to a Final Four (Berlin).
2009/2010 (vs Real 3-1): Double – and resounding – response to Real
Barcelona-Real 68-61
Barcelona-Real 63-70
Real-Barcelona 73-84
Real-Barcelona 78-84
The 2010 series against Real was special for obvious reasons, as it was a ‘clasico’. The Madrilenos looked like they might get the qualification with the break in Game 2 in Barcelona (63-70), but Pascual’s team responded in the most resounding way: a win in Game 3 (73-84) but also in Game 4 (78-84), with the 3-1 getting them the ticket to Paris, where they won the title with a win over Olympiacos in the final.
2010/2011 (vs Panathinaikos 1-3): Hurt by an epic… 3D Panathinaikos
Barcelona-Panathinaikos 83-82
Barcelona-Panathinaikos 71-75
Panathinaikos-Barcelona 76-74
Panathinaikos-Barcelona 78-67
The series against Panathinaikos in 2011 has made history. Barcelona were European champions and with the Final Four taking place in Barcelona, they seemed poised for the back-to-back win. But Obradovic and Dimitris Diamantidis’s team had something to say about that, in what was a kamikaze performance. In Game 2 at the Palau, the Greens made the surprise (71-75) as they got the upper hand and saw through an epic qualification (3-1) with two wins in a burning-hot Olympic Sports Center Athens, where 3D dominated, as he did in the Final Four that followed. For Barcelona, that was the first time they lost the qualification despite having the home court advantage.
2011/2012 (vs Unics 3-0): A piece of cake
Barcelona-Unics 78-66
Barcelona-Unics 66-63
Unics-Barcelona 56-67
Advancing to the Final Four in Istanbul was easy for Pascual’s team, with Unics not being too big an obstacle for the Catalans. The second win in Barcelona came with difficulty (66-63), with Game 3 in Kazan proving a simple procedure (56-67) for this sweep in the series.
2012/2013 (vs Panathinaikos 3-2): The response to the Greens in another epic series
Barcelona-Panathinaikos 72-70
Barcelona-Panathinaikos 65-66
Panathinaikos-Barcelona 65-63
Panathinaikos-Barcelona 60-70
Barcelona-Panathinaikos 64-53
Two years after the epic series of 2011 came the repeat. Once again Barcelona had the home court advantage and once again Argyris Pedoulakis’s Panathinaikos made the break thanks to Diamantidis’s magnificent solo performance – his “victim” being Nathan Jawai – for the 65-66 win in Game 2. Diamantidis was the perpetrator once again in Game 3 in the Olympic Sports Center Athens and the 65-63 win, but the Catalans were ready for a response and they showed it with a 60-70 win and the 2-2 in the Olympic Sports Center Athens, taking the series to a fifth game. In Barcelona, it was a… dogfight. Panathinaikos came up short from the three-point line and the 64-53 win got Barcelona the ticket.
Barcelona-Galatasaray 88-61
Barcelona-Galatasaray 84-63
Galatasaray-Barcelona 75-78
In 2014, Barcelona appeared in their last Final Four, having an easy task in the playoffs against Galatasaray. Domination on the part of Pascual’s team was a given and non-negotiable, with the Turkish team not being able to resist. The 3-0 came easily, with two wins by a wide margin in the Palau, while there was only some difficulty getting the win in Istanbul (75-78) that sealed the qualification.
2014/2015 (vs Olympiacos 1-3): “Killed” by Olympiacos and Printezis
Barcelona-Olympiacos 73-57
Barcelona-Olympiacos 63-76
Olympiacos-Barcelona 73-71
Olympiacos-Barcelona 71-68
In 2015, the Catalan went up against Olympiacos in the playoffs for the first time, again with the home court advantage. Despite losing easily in the first game (73-57), the Reds showed up visibly improved in Game 2 and made the break (63-76) with a perfect game, then getting another two victories at the finish line inside the Peace & Friendship Stadium, with Georgios Printezis’s three-pointer at the expiration of Game 4 that has made history, sending Olympiacos to the Final Four in Madrid.
2015/2016 (vs Lokomotiv Kuban 2-3): Barztokas’s break on the break
Lokomotiv Kuban-Barcelona 66-61
Lokomotiv Kuban-Barcelona 66-92
Barcelona-Lokomotiv Kuban 82-70
Barcelona-Lokomotiv Kuban 80-92
Lokomotiv Kuban-Barcelona 81-67
Barcelona’s last quarterfinal appearance with Pascual at the helm was against Bartzokas’s Lokomotiv, in a series that turned out to be one of the biggest upsets. The Russian team had the home court advantage, which changed hands after Barca’s imposing 66-92 win in Game 2, but the response came in Game 4 in Barcelona, where Anthony Randolph went wild. In Game 5, the home court played a role, like it always does in such cases, and Lokomotiv got the ticket to Berlin, knocking out the Catalans along with Pascual.
2016/2017 (vs Fenerbahce 0-3): A sweep from Fener and Zoc
Panathinaikos-Fenerbahce 58-71
Panathinaikos-Fenerbahce 75-80
Fenerbahce-Panathinaikos 79-61
Pascual changed teams and once again he got in the playoffs. With a strong finish at the end of the regular season, Panathinaikos went ahead of Fenerbahce and got the home court advantage, but Obradovic’s team found the way to… deactivate the Olympic Sports Center Athens. The Greens had the enthusiasm and the expectations, but Fener were totally concentrated, ready and in form, triumphing twice in Athens before finishing off the series in Istanbul, with the sweep causing the wrath of Dimitrios Giannakopoulos who made the team return on a bus.