A victory in Drama
The goal for the games when Olympiacos is the absolute favorite to win and the opponent plays without any pressure is to be solid and serious and in Drama the “reds” showed both elements reaching an easy victory 73 – 55.
The Dusan Ivkovic’ players began playing a focused defense and immediately controlled the tempo raising the lead at 9 points at the end of the first quarter.
Despite the rotation and the continuous changes in players and quintets, the Olympiacos players maintained in even performance and kept increasing the lead.
The Piraeus team stepped on the breaks in the second half but never lost control to the end, actually raising the lead above 20 points.
The quarters: 10-18, 26-43, 37-57, 55-73
KAOD (Κalafatakis): Hunt 5 (8 reb.,), Κarydas, Charalampidis 10 (1), Αthinaiou 8 (2), Michelle 6, Choumas, Κitsoulis 2, Cernanic 9, Zaras 8 (1), Bavcic 2, Kakaroudis 5, Benas.
Οlympiacos (Ivkovic): Hines 6, Antic 9, Spanoulis 9 (1 3p., 4as., 2st.), Dorsey 8 (5reb.), Κeselj 13 (3), Pelekanos 2, Papadopoulos 4 (7 reb.), Printezis 9, Papanikolaou 2, Μantzaris 3 (1 3p., 5 as., 4 st.), Sloukas 8 (2).
*Olympiacos played with an 11 player roster, since Dimitris Katsivelis who travelled to Drama suffered a small sprain and did not play.
DUSAN IVKOVIC: We played a quite good game in the first half and controlled the game well. However, we spoiled all that in the second half and that’s why there was not a bigger score. We had six assists and nine turnovers in the second half. It’s not allowed when you have guards like ours. There were more than five plays to produce easy baskets, but we tried to play a team game. We also tried the transition in the second half, but with too many mistakes.
For sure, it’s difficult for the teams that work with young guys and want to shape players not to play competitive games and things are only going to get worse. With the new Euroleague format and more games, it’s going to be even more difficult.
LAZAROS PAPADOPOULOS: We played rather good basketball tonight and controlled the tempo throughout. Even against zone when the shots did not go in, we moved the ball well, did what we had to do and took free shots. I believe it was a good game, an ad for basketball and everyone enjoyed it. It’s positive for basketball to have teams outside the two major cities and I think the fans are interested. Basketball is joy and civilization and it’s important to attract new fans and young kids.
CHRISTOPHOROS CHOUMAS: It was a difficult game for us. We tried to be serious about it but let’s not forget that we play one of the best teams in Europe. The important thing is we brought the fans to the gym and that we all enjoyed the game.
GIORGOS KALAFATAKIS: For us, it was a celebration game against one of the best team in Europe. We wanted to be and I believed we would have been more competitive. However, we have had a problem with Charalampidis who had been sick the whole week and we tried not to exhaust him. Olympiacos was dead serious from the beginning. We have to use this game as a compass, but also put it behind us and start thinking about the game against Kavala.
Our team’s goal is making the final eight and I wish we can make it for us and for our fans. We have succeeded in our first goal and now we are looking to take the next step.