A win with a huge record for Printezis!
Olympiacos’ return to winning – the ‘reds’ beat Crvena Zvezda 94-79 for the 28th round of the Euroleague – was combined with a huge record for Giorgos Printezis!
The veteran forward made history, since he now holds the top spot for most 2-pointers made in the history of the Euroleague!
In the first quarter, the ‘reds’ got a rather pretty good grade. They put pressure in the defense, moved the ball impeccably, facilitated (dished 10 assists), executed (3/4 threes), dominated rebounding (10-4), made only one turnover and closed the first quarter at +11 (30-19). However, the roles were kind of reversed later in the game… It was the Serbs that moved the ball, found target from the perimeter, took advantage of the our team’s defensive weaknesses and closed in to 50-46, with half time closing at 53-48.
The guests got in the driver’s seat at 24’ (58-59) following a three, but Olympiacos – despite faced with a scoring problem – succeeded through its good defense, as well as it’s dominion under the rim to regain control (78-67 at 31’). Crvena Zvezda tried to come back in the game executing mainly from the perimeter (84-79 at 36’), however, McKissic, Sloukas and Vezenkov stepped up and sealed the victory.
The quarters: 30-19, 53-48, 75-67, 94-79.
"We gave an answer, to ourselves before anyone else"
The Olympiacos’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, commented: “Following a long streak, it was very important to show reaction and win this game against an opponent I have sincere respect for. You saw in the game how consistent they are with their defense and how much pressure they put on the ball and the handlers. It was very important for us, the fact that we played selflessly, passed the ball, dished 24 assists and that has been the key”.
On how hard it is when the team is coming from a long losing streak, he said: “Nothing is easy. Each person is faced with difficulties with their jobs. This job has a lot of pressure. You always need to be finding solutions, to have a strong stomach and endure. You get paid to carry the blame, so you need to prepare yourself. It’s not easy, but I’m happy because I felt we gave an answer to ourselves before anyone else, and that was the most important thing”.
Asked what it is that Olympiacos had in the game against Crvena Zvezda that they were lacking in the previous seven games, he replied: “The opponent is always relevant. Even in the games we lost, we had three that we lost in the last possession. We practically had the upper hand, we were leading the score, had the ball. That always has an impact on a team in this league. If you are a little down psychologically, if you have injuries, if you are mentally unprepared, Euroleague is tough. We have had good periods in general. We have had one good quarter against Baskonia and Efes. Unfortunately, we have not been consistent long enough. For that, there are many reasons that I will be sharing with my players. Despite I don’t want to repeat that all the time, injuries also play an important role in the season. I’m not going to talk about Martin who is very important, but I’m going to talk about Papanikolaou, because we have been playing the entire second part of the season without him”.
Finally, on whether there had been thoughts about acquiring a player in Kostas Papanikolaou’s position, he made clear that: “No, we did not think abou it. Kostas’ situation was getting assessed every day, so we could not have a clear picture. The best neurosurgeons, the best orthopedic doctors got to examine him. It was not a situation that someone had told us that it would go this way. It was a waiting process. Unfortunately, we could not start searching the market on a hypothesis…”
Crvena Zvezda’s coach, Dejan Radonic stated: “Congratulation to Olympiacos for the victory. They played better than us. We were placid with our defense. We started the game lacking energy. We got better then, however, we weren’t good enough at the end to go for something better. The important thing for us was that we had been playing without Hall and Nnoko for about two months and they are now back. It’s very important because we had been playing with an extremely limited rotation which had been very difficult for us”.