Depleted of stamina in Madrid
Olympiacos lost to Real Madrid 78-94 in Spain, for the 18th round of the Euroleague. Nikola Milutinovdid not play the game due to being down with a virus.
With VassilisSpanoulis leading the effort (who injured his right pinkie at 5’, but returned on the floor after splints were adhered, our team got a 13-8 lead at 3’. The ‘reds’ maintained the lead up to 7’ (18-16), however, the hosts relying on excellent perimeter percentages as well as on their dominating rebounding, succeeded in closing the first quarter with a +5 (28-23).
VassilisSpanoulis and GiorgosBogris ‘ran’ a 5-0 for Olympiacos (28-28), however, the Madrilène, who continued shooting extremely well from the perimeter (they had 7/13 threes in the first half in comparison to 6/12 for Olympiacos), succeeded in building a difference relying on creation. Theypassed 13 assistsinthesecondquarter (foronly 1 (!) in the first one), passed the ball inside the post, took advantage of every inch of the ‘reds’ defensive gaps and skyrocketed the margin to +13 (54-41, at 18’).
David Blatt’s players nevertheless denied to quit the fight… Despite lacking in size with their front line, they won the battle of the rebounds (14 for 9 of the Spaniards) and with a 5-0 run closed in 54-46 at the end of the first half.
Olympiacos was better in regard to defense in the second half (60-54’ at 24’), but when attacking – with the exception of GiorgosBogris, who finished the game with 6/6 twos – wasn’t as effective (72-65, at 32’). The ‘reds’ fought up untl 34’ (70-78), but then collapsed, receiving a partial 13-2 991-72, at 38’) and watched Real comfortably ‘finishing’ the game.
The quarters: 28-23, 54-46, 72-63, 94-78.
Real Madrid (Laso): Causeur 5 (1), Randolph 16 (2), Fernandez 8, Campazzo 13 (3), Reyes 4, Αyon13, Τavares 7, Llull 3 (1), Deck 9 (2), Τompkins 5 (1), Taylor 11 (3)
Οlympiacos (Blatt): Williams-Goss 13 (3 3pm., 5 as, 1 st), Τoupane, Spanoulis 12 (2 3pm., 11 as), Τimma 3 (1), Strelnieks 4, Vezenkov 1, Printezis11, Papanikolaou 7 (1 3pm., 6 reb), Mantzaris, Bogris 12 (6/6 2pm, 2 reb, 3 as, 2 st), LeDay 15 (13pm., 8 reb)
«We’ll think about the next day…»
David Blatt stressed: “First of all, I would like to congratulate Real Madrid. They were better tonight. We have had moments in the game that we may have had the chance to keep close to the score and we did that for most part of the game. We simply did not do enough things defense wise, so as to compete Real when they were shooting with such good percentages. We are in a pressing situation. It was our fifth game in the last nine days and I think that especially in the second half, the absence of Nikola Milutinov was obvious in our rotation. This was the cause for many problems which Real Madrid took advantage of.
Askedifhehadanticipatedthatloss, hereplied: «Iwillbe using my past in the NBA to answer that question. Some days you go to the gym because of the schedule for instance, and despite what you do you just can’t win the game. That’sthereality. WhenyoucometoMadridtoplayagainstateamofthatqualityandskillandyouaretiredandyoumissakeyplayer, exceptifthereshouldsomethingextraordinaryhappen, youarenotgoingtowin. That’sthetruth. In thirty Euroleague games, you will not be having many days like this one, but you are going to have a few. You will have to look at yourself in the mirror and tell your players “guys, of course we can do better than this, but tonight just wasn’t our night. We shall have to think about the next day”. And that’s what we are going to do».
Finally, when asked to comment on the statement made by Barcelona’s coach, Svetislav Pesic, you said that the basketball played in the Euroleague is better than that of the NBA, he said: “I saw that and I’ll tell you something that I always say… The game in the NBA is different than that in Europe. It doesn’t have to do with which one is better or worse or has more quality. I don’t agree with that part of his statement. However, I understand that coach Pesic has a different optic for the game. I personally have the experience and I can tell you that it’s a different kind of basketball, it has different rules, the schedule for the teams is different, the players and the way the teams are being built is different. The game, as well as everything surrounding the game is very different from what applies in Europe. So, quality wise, I wouldn’t say that one style is better than the other. But I recognize and understand the differences in the way the game is played. And there are a lot”.
Zack LeDay stated: “They made a lot of tough shots. We should watch the video and listen to what the coach has to say about what did not work in our defense. If I knew what the problem was, we would have won! However, we can’t be playing like that. We need to work and get better. But we also need to leave this game behind us and move on. I need to get better too. I want to be getting better every day and listen to my team mates. This is my first year with the Euroleague, so I listen to them and absorb whatever they have to give. I get experience through the games, and the more we go into the season, the better I and the team will be getting. Our goal is to make the final four and why not, even win the title. But to do that, we need a lot more work”.