It is the end of the 2013/2014 Euroleague season and it came to choose between two teams for the best team this year. Real Madrid and Maccabi Tel Aviv will battle for the European basketball throne. CSKA Moscow and Barcelona will fight for the third place honors three hours before the Euroleague finals. Barcelona was manhandled in the semifinals when Real Madrid beat them to the ground. They lost that game in a convincing manner. In the second semifinal CSKA Moscow proved once again that they lack luck when it comes to Euroleague final four appearances. They lost to Maccabi in a thriller game after leading by 4 points with 20 seconds to go in the game. Big season ending mistake by Victor Khryapa led Maccabi to the finals.

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Many Euroleague experts will say that Real Madrid is surely the best team in Europe today and that Maccabi got to the finals thanks to the low competition in the group stage and lack of enthusiasm from Emporio Armani in the playoffs. But the truth is that Maccabi is an experienced squad full of highly skilled professionals at each position led by one of the greatest coaches that ever trained in Europe, sir David Blat. He went through lots of tough games in his career on club and international level so this is nothing new for him. Here’s what he had to say about the game:

You decide what you have and what allows you to be most successful. I’m happy that Pablo and his Madrid plays the way they play because it is attractive and successful basketball. I think we also play a style that requires a certain kind of basketball smarts and qualities that suit our players. The important thing is that the teams play hard, play together and play to win. This is our philosophy at Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The biggest advantage for Real Madrid is at the PG and PF position. Sergio Llull will battle against Yogev Ohayon. The first is an experienced player and one of the best playmakers in Europe whilst Ohayon has managed to score in double figures only four times in 26 games this season. Nikola Mirotic is a European prodigy at the power forward position and he is rumored to join the Chicago Bulls next year. This is his last chance to win the Euroleague with Real Madrid and he will surely be motivated against the undersized David Blu. Blu is well undersized, but is one of the most experienced players on Maccabi’s roster so it will be interesting to see how he will guard Mirotic. Sofoklis Schortsanitis is the most powerful weapon that Maccabi has. He will need to prove once again that he is the most dominant center in European basketball going against experienced Greek center Ioannis Bourousis. They both play on the Greek national team, so surely they know a thing or two about each other.

The Eruoleague Finals start at 20:00 CET and the battle for third place starts at 17:00 CET. Earlier today Red Star Belgrade managed to beat Real Madrid U18 squad. We will see if their senior squad will manage to make a comeback tonight.