Defense, Spanoulis and Rubit
Olympiacos beat Baskonia at the SEF 80-70 and is still in the run for a spot in the TOP 8. Great game by Spanoulis and Rubit.
The ‘reds’ played without Giorgos Printezis, while during the second half, the team also lost Vassilis Charalampopoulos to a heavy sprain. Despite that, they won and now have a 9-13 record.
The game began with Olympiacos trying to set the tempo of the game. Spanoulis and Milutinov did a great job with Vezenkov helping the offense. The ‘reds’ weren’t good defensive wise and hence the first quarter finished with the team of Giorgos Bartzokas leading 25-24.
In the second quarter, the Piraeus team defense got way better. Octavius Ellis, in his debut with the red jersey, offered solutions on both ends of the floor while Rubit and Spanoulis did a great job for the 43-37 at halftime. Baskonia tried to react in the third quarter, but Olympiacos, once again playing great defense and with Charalampopoulos assisting, the score became 59-51. In the last quarter, the Basques practically succumbed to the ‘reds’ superiority for the final 80-70.
The quarters: 25-24, 43-37, 59-51, 80-70.
Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Rochestie 2, Baldwin 2 (6as), Paul 3 (1), Charalampopoulos 3 (1), Κoniaris, Spanoulis 16 (3reb, 4as), Μilutinov 10 (3reb), Vezenkov 9 (1), Papanikolaou 5 (1 3p, 3reb), Rubit 19 (2 3p, 7reb), Ellis 11 (7reb).
Baskonia (Ιvanovic): Christon 3 (1), Janning 5 (1), Diop, Garcia 5 (1), Fall 2, Stauskas 14 (4), Shengelia 14 (5reb, 7as), Shields 14 (2), Eric 5, Polonara 8 (2 3p)
Giorgos Bartzokas stressed that “we had been expecting such a game. Baskonia has size, good players, but they have problems. They lack guards and they’ve been trying to sign players. Congratulations to my players because after Valencia, we are the team with the most assists, about 21 per game, and that’s very important to me because in the previous games we had among the bottom ranked Euroleague teams in that area. This shows that we are not selfish and we don’t play as individuals but as a team. We are happy, we shouldn’t underestimate any Euroleague team. You see what goes on week after week. We need consistency and I hope we win a second game in a row. It has been a tough week for us, emotionally wise, because we lost Antonis. He had been working for us for 28 years, he was a big part of our daily lives. For us who have been here for a long time, his loss was of huge proportions. I ‘dedicate’ the victory to him, because this is actually nothing. I just needed to remind to everyone that Antonis was really important for Olympiacos”.
About the injuries of Charalampopoulos and Printezis, the Greek coach explained that “Pritnezis got injured in the ribs three days ago, he tried, but he was hurting. He’s going to be getting better day by day. It can’t become worse. Charalampopoulos’ sprain is a heavy one, although we shouldn’t be making diagnosis so soon. But it seems so… I wish that no one gets to be mssing for a lot of days. He was within the game spirit, just like Ellis. It’s not easy for anyone who’s been with a team for four days to be a winning factor”.
About Octavius Ellis and the advantage that he had known European basketball, the Olympiacos coach pointed out that “for someone who has not played in Europe the difference is huge. ράστια It would take them 2 or 3 months to understand the toughness and level of European basketball. It’s in the player’s hands, not in mine. During the game, I wasn’t feeling that he was falling short in any aspect. I trusted him on the court».
The defensive image of the team was improved, and the coach of the ‘reds’ was asked about it> “We have defensive problems. To build a solid defense, you need to be doing a certain job, but also sign players that are willing to play defense. With all due respect to former drafts, the players that had been signed were not of that disposition. The team does not have a defensive stopper in the perimeter, nor a rim protector in the post. We are now trying to fix this part and I think that the addition of Ellis is going to be helping us in this. So, let’s be patient. It takes consistency, not just a good game. In St. Peterbsurg we had not have the right defensive attitude».