A bad start for the TOP-16

Olympiacos did not succeed in starting the Euroleague TOP-16 with a victory since they were edged in Vitoria to Caja Laboral 82-74.

The start had been an ideal one for the Giorgos Bartzokas team. Despite the original 13-4, the European and Greek Champions with a partial 20-6 succeeded in leading 24-19 over the Basques at 10’. The difference was even at +11 for the Piraeus team (30-19) with the partial score being 26-6. But from that point on, everything went wrong.

Tabak’s team closed in 40-44 at half time and nothing went as planned in the third quarter. Lampe did a lot of damage, Caja Laboral led 67-55 and Olympiacos tried for the big upset. However, the players of Giorgos Bartzokas weren’t successful and thus the European and Greek Champions began the TOP-16 games with a defeat.

Τhe quarters: 19-24, 40-44, 67-55, 82-74

Caja Laboral (Tabak): Cook, Nocioni 11 (6reb), Bjelica Μ, San Emeterio 6 (2), Pleiss 5, Heurtel 13 (1), Oleson 15 (1), Lampe 25, Bjelica Ν 5 (1), Causeur 2.

Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Hines 6 (5reb), Law 5, Antic 13 (3/7 3p.), Spanoulis 18 (2), Perperoglou 7 (1), Mavroeidis, Powell, Gecevicius 5 (1), Printezis 10, Papanikolaou 10 (2/7 3p.), Mantzaris.

GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “Congratulations to Caja for the victory. They played an excellent game in the second half, while at the same time we played a lesser game, especially in defense. We ended the first half very close because we made a lot of mistakes and that gave them confidence. It’s a new competition and Caja is a new team with better chemistry from what they had shown in the Regular Season. We have to learn from our mistakes and look at one game at a time, starting from the one against Besiktas”.  

MARTYNAS GECEVICIUS: “We did not play good defense at all, we did not stop their pick n’ rolls, but we also did not move the ball right in offense and we made the wrong passes. We knew it was going to be a totally different game and that Caja has improved a lot, which we saw on the floor. But still, I believe it is us who lost the game. It’s still the beginning, it’s a long tournament and now we should only focus on the game against Besiktas”.

The results of the group

Caja Laboral-Οlympiacos 82-74
Besiktas-Khimki 75-80
Siena-Maccabi Tel Aviv 79-69
Barcelona-Fenerbahce/Ulker (28/12)

Standings

1. Siena 2 79-69
2. Caja Laboral 2 82-74
3. Khimki 2 80-75
4. Besiktas 1 75-80
5. Olympiacos 1 74-82
6. Maccabi Tel Aviv 69-79
7. Barcelona -
8. Fenerbahce/Ulker -