Olympiacos fought, had a good chance but succumbed in the overtime
Olympiacos missed a huge opportunity to leave from OAKA with the victory. The 'reds' had the chance to seal the win in the regulation (86-86), however, they got to "pay" for their bad percentages from the free throw line and their bad choices in the last seconds of the game, hence losing to Panathinaikos 93-99 at the overtime.
The main characteristic of the first quarter was balance… Olympiacos took a 7-2 lead at 2', but Panathinaikos replied immediately with a 6-0 partial and hence the lead was constantly changing sides up to 11' (23-23). From that point on, the hosts established the tempo (33-25 at 14'), thanks to Rice who took advantage of the bad defensive operations of the 'reds' (he got to finish the first quarter having scored 18 points), as well as their dominance of offensive rebounding. Spanoulis and Printezis tried to shrink the margin (43-39), but Rice, with a three almost at the buzzer of the second quarter, made the score 46-39.
Panathinaikos - who made its first turnover after 25' minutes into the game (!) - consistently maintained control up to 28' (61-51). However, with good defense and with Wade Baldwin and Brandon Paul spearheading the offense, our team ran a partial 13-2 and succeeded in turning the game around and leading by 1 (63-64 at 31'). The hosts 'struck' from the 6.75m and once again made a +8 lead for them (74-66), but Paul, Cherry and Spanoulis paid them back the same way. They opened fire from the perimeter and brought Olympiacos to +3 (81-84). Despite their nerve wrecking failure to score from the free throw line, the 'reds' remained at the driver's seat and had the chance twice in the last seconds to seal the victory. Baldwin missed at a two pointer attempt; Papagiannis tied the score at 86p, while Olympiacos' American guard turned the ball over 3.6'' before the buzzer with the game going to overtime.
The game remained a derby up to the 3rd minute of the five minute extra time, when Olympiacos had a +2 lead (89-91). Tyrese Rice though took the situation at hand, the 'reds' seemed to be lacking stamina, Panathinaikos got the rebounds and running a 7-0 partial got to lead with +5 (96-91). Papanikolaou made the score 96-93 with a layup with 19.5'' on the clock, but it was however already late…
The quarters: 18-17, 46-39, 63-62, 86-86. Extra time: 99-93.
Panathinaikos (Pitino): Thomas 13 (4), Rice 41(8 3p), Papagiannis 5, Papapetrou 11 (1), Pappas, Vougioukas, Johnson, Fredette 7 (1), Calathes 14, Mitoglou 8, Bentil.
Οlympiacos (Κemzura): Rochestie, Bladwin 10 (4 reb., 2 as.), Paul 17 (5 3p., 6 reb., 2 as.), Κoniaris 3 (1), Spanoulis 18 (2 3p., 5 as.), Cherry 7 (1 3p., 5 reb.), Μilutinov 14 (10 reb., 2 as.), Vezenkov 6 (1), Printezis 7, Papanikolaou 5 (13p., 2 as.), Rubit 2, Reed 4.
"I'm taking the responsibility"
Olympiacos' coach, Kestutis Kemzura, stated: "It was a good game. We had good chances to win. If you take a look at the stats, we were better at rebounding, we shot more free throws, we had better three point percentages, we had more assists, however, our free throws percentage 'killed' us. It was one of the main reasons we lost the game. Also, some details in the game and the fact that we allowed Panathinaikos to score many points before they even had the free throws bonus. We could not stop Rice. He was excellent. Also, I, did not do my job well as a coach so as to find ways to help my players stop him. You can never play a perfect game, however, what we can say, is that we didn't play the last possessions correctly ".
Asked why he didn't use Reed more and if he thinks that Paul and Baldwin will gain psychology from the particular game, he replied: "As you know, Reed had been injured. He practiced some with the team and I think that he played well, during the minutes he got. We tried with Rubit in the first half, who did not do so well. We then used Reed, however, I chose to have Milutinov on the court at the end. That's the reason I didn't use him again. Nothing more. I knew he was coming from an injury and he wasn't able to play a lot. Paul, when he finds rhythm, becomes very dangerous and it's not only him that gains confidence when playing like that, but the whole team does as well. Baldwin has the quality we need and want. I don't want to say that he lacks experience, however, games like tonight's are new to him. He can play much better. He was really good at times in the game and helped us, but in some other he did not do the little things we asked from him and should have done".
On whether he was annoyed by the fact that despite Fredette remaining scoreless in the first half, Calathes only having one assists during the same time, and Panathinaikos having a mere 23% at threes, his team nevertheless received 46 points during that period, he said: "All of these stats were in our favor. However, it's not just the first part. It was good we got to play better and return to the game, however, I see a lot of things that we failed at. We did not have good communication, we lost our concentration, missed a lot of easy baskets. We could have gotten the result merely using smart fouls. We knew that Calathes has half or more of Panathinaikos' assists in every game. We wanted to stop that and we did it, however we hadn't wanted to give Rice the shots. They are too many and I take the responsibility".