Panathinaikos breezed past Monaco in the Euroleague playoffs on Tuesday and its 87-79 victory has taken it to the playoffs.
Now, in the best-of-five series with regular-season runner-up Valencia, the Spaniards will have home advantage and the winner will advance to the Athens Final Four in May.
Playing in front of a capacity crowd at the Telekom Center Athens, Panathinaikos led throughout the game with the Monegasques after the first five minutes, and stretched its advantage up to 17 points (60-43), led by a superb TJ Shorts. The American came from the bench and changed the pace of the game, tiring out the eight players that Monaco had at its disposal.
Much as former Panathinaikos player Mike James tried to upset the hosts, scoring 25 points on the night, depleted Monaco could not really threaten the Greens.
Shorts paced the hosts with a Euroleague-career-equaling 21 points, followed by Kenneth Faried who has 13 points and eight rebounds.
Monaco will now face Barcelona for the last ticket to the playoffs and the winner will face Olympiakos in the best-of-five series.