Madrid dethrones Olympiacos, reaches the 2014 Final Four!

There will be a new champion at the end of this Turkish Airlines Euroleague season. Real Madrid knocked out back-to-back champion Olympiacos Piraeus with an 83-69 victory at home on Friday. The result sends Madrid to its sixth Final Four – and third in four years – by winning their best-of-five series 3-2. Madrid will face archrival FC Barcelona in the semifinals next month in Milan. Sergio Llull led the winners with 20 points. Felipe Reyes and Rudy Fernandez each added 15, while Nikola Mirotic had 10 for Madrid. Vassilis Spanoulis led Olympiacos with 19 points. Matt Lojeski added 15 for the Reds. Three-pointers by Lojeski and Spanoulis allowed Olympiacos to get an early 7-9 lead. Mirotic and an outstanding Llull stepped up to give Madrid an 18-12 lead after 10 minutes. Reyes and consecutive three-pointers by Sergio Rodriguez made it 38-25, but Ioannis Papapetrou and Spanoulis combined for all the points in a 0-7 run that kept Olympiacos within 40-34 at halftime. Mirotic took over after the break and got help from Fernandez to keep Madrid ahead, 59-52. Madrid boosted its margin to 66-54 behind an unstoppable Reyes and then again to 76-62 with four minutes left, enough to start celebrating a spot in the 2014 Final Four.