Tau and Maccabi Tel Aviv come up short as CSKA Moscow clinch basketball's Euroleague gold

The 2008 Euroleague Final Four was a rather mixed affair. You had the team that walked the walk and had the strut of a champion, and you had three others trying to prove that the result should not have been a foregone conclusion.

In all fairness, even before the finals, it was pretty clear that to take the title away from Russian side CSKA Moscow would have needed an extraordinary effort from Siena, Maccabi or Tau. Even the non-biased finals previews predicted that even if Maccabi were to play the up-tempo game that suits them best, they would need to be at their very best throughout to beat CSKA. Even if Maccabi had the No.1 offense going up against CSKA’s No. 1 defense, the gap was visibly large between these two.

To make matters worse, CSKA was pretty much woken up in the first game of the Final Four when Tau managed to go close against the Russian team. Alas, Igor Rakocevic and his boys had succumbed to the powerhouse CSKA team that featured pure shooter Trajan Langdon, emotional leader JR Holden, and Euro legend Theo Papalukas.

With all of this in mind, the final still seemed winnable for Maccabi. Whenever Langdon or Holden extended CSKA’s lead with their barrage of three pointers Maccabi found a way to clamp down on their D and use energy guy Will Bynum’s strengths to their advantage. Bynum had that monster breathing fire in his eye all night.

It’s too bad then, that his team-mates did not believe in the win. Every time Bynum brought them back into the game, mistakes from the likes of Alex Garcia or David Bluthenthal killed Maccabi’s chances. These players were supposed to carry this team, but they never managed to do that. Bynum, too, had his fair share of destruction with a game high five turnovers, although at least three of those came out of desperation as his team-mates seemed to be a step slower from him mentally at times.

Mental toughness was definitely at question late in the game, when Maccabi seemed to argue every single call, allowing themselves to lose their focus when it would have been important not to. I agreed with some of the gripes, as the referees weren’t always at the top of their game, but both sides got equally bad calls, so the officiating did not affect the final result.

Meanwhile, the CSKA machine was rolling. Trajan Langdon was every bit of the “Alaskan Assassin” we have come to know. His 21-point, seven-rebound two-steal effort earned him the MVP title. Yet the fact that CSKA almost doubled Maccabi’s assist output through the game and the turnover margin of 9-16 makes it clear this was a team effort. On this night Langdon had the hot hand, but this victory owed just as much to Holden, Papalukas, and Matjaz Smodis.

The surprise of the night was Sienna beating Tau in a close battle. NBA talent Tiago Splitter came up pretty flat in this affair despite scoring 15 points. His lack of rebounding prowess (just two for the game) and his five turnovers contributed to what was, in the end, a disappointing loss for the Spanish side. Sienna, led by the trio of Romain Sato, Kristof Lavrinovic and Terrell McIntyre, were clearly the fresher side. One can only imagine that Tau had its sights on the title and, after blowing a winnable semi-final against CSKA, they just had all the wind knocked out of them.

I have heard many opinions that the true final was the playoff series between Olympiakos and CSKA at the beginning of April. Whilst I believe the Greek team was deserving of a Final Four spot, this event has actually proved to me that all four of these teams were deserving of the berth, and the best team truly did prevail in the end…

And if anybody thought this was to be decided between Olympiakos and CSKA, well at least we got to see that series as well. So all’s fair that ends fair.

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