Lead for the title
Olympiacos beat Panathinaikos 77-72 for the third play offs final of the Basket League SKRATS, leads the series 2-1 and is now one victory away from winning the title. Vassilis Spanoulis was the MVP for the Piraeus team.
The ‘reds’ now lead the series 2-1 and are only one victory away from the title. For this lead however to be won, the ‘reds’ had to succeed a major upset since they turned the score from 59-66 to 72-66 with a 13-0 run.
THE DEFENSE: Wasn’t good in the first half. The Piraeus’ players’ defense wasn’t what it should have been in the first 20 minutes of the game, hence the ‘greens’ scored 44 points. However, in the second half, Olympiacos substantially improved on its defense and kept Panathinaikos at 22 points in 19 minutes thus succeeding in the great upset.
THE OFFENSE: ‘Thrylos’ stepped on the gas pedal in the last quarter and played with determination, the players of Giannis Sfairopoulos improved their offensive performance, stopped being hesitant and thus changed the situation in their favor.
THE MVP: Vassilis Spanoulis. The captain took the team by the hand, just like he’s been doing all these years, and showed his team mates the path to victory. The Greek guard had 22 points, 5 fouls won, 1 assist and 1 block in 27:29’’ on the floor.
KEEPS, FORGETS: Keeps the 2-1 lead and is now looking straight ahead. In series like that and in games of the kind there is nothing else a team can do but to forget all that has happened and to look ahead to the next game. The ‘reds’ have now to only forget the 2-1 lead and are now focusing on the next game in OAKA.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 17-21, 41-44, 57-62, 77-72
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Papapetrou 7 (1), Spanoulis 22 (3), Milutinov 4, Printezis 3, Mantzaris 2, Hunter 7, Strawberry 5 (1), Agravanis 2, Warrick, Hackett 9, Lojeski 16 (3), Papanikolaou.
Panathinaikos (Pedoulakis): Charalampopoulos 8, Fotsis 3 (1), Feldein 17 (3), Calathes 15 (1), Hunter 2, Radulica, Pappas 4, Diamantidis 10 (1), Gist 2, Papagiannis 9, Williams 2, Heins.
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: «Screaming now about the officiation is to influence what happens in the next game… Panathinaikos was good, but the shots we made, the defensive plays and the offensive rebounds we grabbed had nothing to do with the officiation. In the previous game the free throws were 27-15 and we won. The most part is to create a certain atmosphere in view of the next game. It’s a great victory that gives us the lead in the finals series. I believe that after the game in OAKA when we regained the home court advantage, we had extra pressure tonight to find solutions and play well on both ends of the court. We were very stressed especially in the first half, we received easy points and were not playing well on either end of the floor. Our defense wasn’t good in the first half, we received 44 points. Our primary goal was to calm our players during the break. Our defense gave us the victory. We kept Panthinaikos at 10 points in the fourth quarter and showed character at the end with Vassilis and the other guys who led us to victory with experience and guts. Our metal and character were a key to get us the victory. We keep a low profile, we play the next game in our opponent’s court, the pressure will be on Panathinaikos and I think we need to remain focused. Congratulations to the fans that stood by our side even when we were trailing and helped us reached victory in a sporting manner. We missed Lojeski during the whole season. We all see how useful a player he is, because he creates and scores. By playing the ‘2’ position he also gets to create, which is something we need. It’s an extra element that helps the team. It’s an important part of the team that we were missing».
On Giorgos Printezis injury: «He’s left to get examined and we’ll know tomorrow at the latest. He had a nasty fall on his injured foot which had kept him off courts in the previous months. I don’t know how serious it is, but it doesn’t look good».
DANIEL HACKETT: «It was a tough battle, just like in the previous two games. There was a lot of pressure and it was very intense. It was very difficult for us to come ahead and we were trailing for most of the game, but we found boost through our defense in the last six minutes and that gave offensive solutions as well. Vassilis and Ioannis made some big shots and we found the way to win».
ARGYRIS PEDOULAKIS: «I congratulated our players. I think they are the moral winners. They played with a lot of energy, despite coming from a loss at the buzzer. We got the message. We did not say anything after the previous game. Gist was the target in the previous game, tonight it was Calathes and Fotsis. We were much better in the first half, despite our defense not being aggressive enough. Olympiacos executed 20 free throws. I don’t want to make any comments or mock the fans. It wasn’t a fair officiation. We were better than the in first game and should have been able to have a wider lead. We can say a lot about free throlws, threes, rebounds and so forth, but the thing is that we were left without our leader at the end, who was exceptional and because he was exceptional he was targeted by Mr. Piloidis. They raised their hands twice to stop the fast break following a foul and he wouldn’t even call those ».
On the Papagiannis’ performance: «It was obvious that we were missing Papangiannis a lot, he’ talented, although he still has weaknesses. We need him however as is».
ANTONIS FOTSIS: «It was yet another good game that was decided by details. It was a tough and hard game. We managed to execute our game plan for quite some time, we even led, but Olympiacos was better at the end, or maybe we were tired and lost our concentration. The series is now 2-1 for them, we have to see what happens in OAKA»