Did not make it in Kaunas
Olympiacos failed to return from Kaunas with a win, losing to Zalgiris 75-83 for the 11th round of the Euroelague.
The beginning for the 'reds' and specifically for Giorgos Printezis was spectacular. "Pri" finished the first quarter with 14p. and 4/4 threes, while our team had a total of 7/9 threes at the same time. Hence, Olympiacos got to impose the tempo and built a difference of +11 (18-29, at 9'). The 'reds' - that made no turnovers in the first half (!!) - maintained their distance up until 14' (25-36). However, the hosts used aggressive defense at that point and taking advantage of their superiority in the post attacked back and made a two point game (40-42, at 18'). The solution once again came from the three point line, from where Papanikolaou and Strelnieks got to score to make the score at the end of the first half 40-48.
However, nothing worked right for our team in the second half… All the turnovers not made in the first half, were piled up in the third quarter (a total of 8), while it was a real struggle to even score one basket. It's only characteristic that it took the team four minutes from the beginning of the 3rd quarter to find the path to scoring (LeDay made his free throws). Despite all that, Zalgiris succeeded to take the lead only at 30' (60-59), since defense was keeping our team alive till then. But in the fourth quarter, the hosts came in really strong, found target from the perimeter and got to lead by +9 (68-59, at 35'). David Blatt's players tried to react (70-64, at 37'), but they didn't make it. On the contrary, Zalgiris had found rhythm and increased the distance further (80-69, at 39'). Four points in a row by Williams-Goss allowed Olympiacos to close in at 7p. (80-73, with 45'' to the end), but it was already late…
Quarters: 19-29, 40-48, 60-59, 83-75.
ZALGIRIS (Jasikevicius): Davis 12 , Walton, Wolters 14 (1), Westermann, Birutis 2, Milaknis 6 (2), White 13, Grigonis 19 (3), Kavaliauskas 12 (), Ulanovas 5 (1)
ΟLYMPIACOS (Blatt): Williams-Goss 9 (1), Spanoulis 9 (1), Τimma 9 (3), Μilutinov 4, Strelnieks 5 (1), Vezenkov, Printezis 18 (4), Papanikolaou 6 (2), Μantzaris, Bogris, LeDay 15 (1).
«Twenty minutes don't give you the victory»
David Blatt stated after the game: "Congratulations to Zalgiris. Obviously their very good second half was what made all the difference in the game. We played a great first half; however, 20 minutes don't give you the victory in such an arena. We lost our orientation as to playing organized and disciplined and we paid for it. We made 16 turnovers in the second half and none in the first one. You don't have to be a genius to understand what the result would be".
Asked about Axel Toupane, he replied: "We missed him and this is an arena that raised his playing level. His defensive skills can have a serious impact on a game. He can also do other things on the floor as well, however, we've been playing without him in the last four games. We had to find a way to win regardless of whether he was playing or not".
The coach disagreed that the big sized players had decided the game: "I think that the game was decided by the guards".