A field trip to the Greek Cup semifinals!
Olympiacos beat Kolossos Rhodes at the SEF 84-53 and with characteristic ease “sealed” his ticket to the Greek Cup semifinals.
The ‘reds’ tried to take advantage of their dominance in the post, passed the ball inside to Nikola Milutinov and combined with the inspiring offense provided by Spanoulis and Williams-Goss got a 7p. lead (14-7, at 6’). Kolossos closed in 16-12, however, Olympiacos succeeded in completely imposing the tempo when David Blatt lined up a “small ball” quintet with Spanoulis as a point backed up by Toupane, Papanikolaou, Vezenkov and Printezis and then with Mantzaris and Timma instead of V-Span and Pap… Our team functioned exceptionally in defense during that time and with four back to back threes (three by Axel Toupane and one by Janis Timma) sent the difference to +18 (30-12, at 13’). Relying on its good defense, Olympiacos increased the distance even further (21p., 41-20 at 18’) and went to the locker rooms leading 44-23.
The guests seemed to coming back in the first minutes of the 3rd quarter and closed in 46-30 at 24’. The Olympiacos players, nevertheless, saw to restore order immediately… They put pressure in the defense, moved the ball really well, made good choices when attacking and in less than two minutes ran a 9-0 streak and sent the difference to +25 (55-30)! They didn’t stop there… Using the same recipe, they got to broaden to margin (+35, 79-44 at 35’), with David Blatt trying at the same time to preserve stamina in view of the Euroleague game against Panathinaikos at the OAKA.
The quarters: 21-12, 44-23, 64-40, 84-53.
Οlympiacos (Blatt): Wiliams-Goss 8, Τoliopoulos, Τoupane 11 (3 3p., 4 as., 2st.), Spanoulis 3, Τimma 21 (2 3p., 6 reb.), Μilutinov 8 (6reb.), Vezenkov 13 (11 reb.), Printezis 4, Papanikolaou, Μantzaris 3 (1), Bogris 2, LeDay 11.
Κolossos Rhodes (Vetoulas): Gibbs 6, Browning 8, Duren 2, Kempton 3, Aska 4, Georgalis 6 (2), Diggs 11(3), Angelakos, Georgakis 4, Mavroeidis 9, Papadakis.
«I hope that we take such shots again and we make them»!
David Blatt appeared satisfied from his players’ performance in the first three quarters, but not from the last one. “Such games are never easy, until you make them easy. I think that we came out very focused in the first half, being really motivated to win. We also played with logic and rather well in the third quarter, but in the fourth one, we allowed the score to get to us and influence our game, which we shouldn’t have done. Of course, the important thing is we are at the Greek Cup semifinals and that was the objective today”.
Asked about the poor 20% (6/30) the ‘reds’ had from the three point arc and why he thinks this was the case, he replied: “It’s a fair question… As a coach, you learn to judge whether they had been good shots or not. Whether the ball gets in or not is beyond me. It’s not in my hands. In my mind, most them were open and good shots. So, I hope we take the same shots, but this time we make them. I have already a lot to worry about, I don’t need worrying about that as well”.
Janis Timma: “We are at the beginning of the season. We have many things to work on to reach our goals. These games are good practice for us. We still haven’t reached our peak performances. It’s not easy to assess the percentage of readiness we are at right now. We have more things to do to improve. The game against Panathinaikos is a big one. Everyone knows about it and we are looking forward to it. We are going there to do the best we can to win”.