A defeat with a lot of complaints
Olympiacos lost to Panathinaikos 81-78 for the Greek Cup Final, but the ‘reds’ have a lot of complaints against the game referees.
The European and Greek Champions did not start the game well resulting for them to be trailing 23-15 in the first quarter. Antic and Sloukas changed the momentum of the game, the Piraeus team closed in but the ‘reds’ continued not shooting well behind the 6.75m. line and thus the team of Giorgos Bartzokas was trailing by 11 at the end of the first half (41-30).
The ‘reds’ went for the big upset in the third quarter, but each time the closed in their opponents would elude them shooting continuous free throws. A three pointer by Sloukas gave Olympiacos the lead for the first time in the game (72-71), but the ‘reds’ weren’t able to maintain this lead resulting in an 81-78 defeat and the ‘reds’ having a lot to complain about to the game refs.
Τhe quarters: 15-23, 30-41, 53-62, 78-81.
Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Hines 8, Law 15(1), Antic 17 (4), Spanoulis (2), Perperoglou 2, Shermadini 4, Sloukas 10(2), Papanikolaou 2, Powell 2, Gecevicius, Printezis 6(1).
Panathinaikos (Pedoulakis): Schortsanitis 6, Bramos, Skordilis, Maciulis 3(1), Kapono 8, Ukic 18(3), Lasme 16, Tsartsaris, Diamantidis 19 (1), Gist 11(2), Banks.
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “Congratulations to Panathinaikos. They played a really good game. We are going to talk about what happened in the game, but also around it. We obviously are going to condemn all that has happened resulting in a parody of a game. I’ll be telling you something that is 100% true. A flare hit Hines on the head and sent him on the floor. He entered the locker rooms dizzy and semi-conscious. I saw the team was in shock and this showed in the way we entered the game, without determination, hesitant and scared. What happened affected us and this is only human. Panathinaikos played well. We came back in the game without performing well. At some crucial points, two three-pointers Panathinaikos scored under pressure had a toll on us. We could still win a game that was actually determined by details. Apart from all of these, in a climate of terror that presides both basketball and our society, after the attack of the Panathinaikos President in the Peace and Friendship Stadium locker rooms where the atmosphere had been great, and his attack on the ref, Mr. Piloidis… Mr. Koromilas (i.e. a ref) was gone from his home because he had been threatened…
He was standing and threatening the officials. I wonder if this is possible to have a normal game under these circumstances. All of the above are just not normal. Everything that has happened should be troubling us. Congratulations to Panathinaikos and good luck for the future. Everybody knows what kind of relationship exists among coaches and athletes, there is no problem there. You can be asking from us, the coaches to make decisions on these kinds of matters, but we just work for the clubs. Those in charge should be making these decisions… The Presidents of our Club set an example by welcoming Mr. Giannakopoulos in our gym. When Hines came back on the floor dizzy, we should probably have stopped our team from playing the game. Do you think that Panathinaikos would agree to that? The flare could have left the player bling. We could have said that we were not going to play.
We all here think that the solution is going to be reached by either the coaches or the players? We are employees of our clubs. The solution should be reached by either the Federation or the League. We make our living from basketball. It is in our best interest to keep normality… But the situation is out of boundaries… It is a social phenomenon. Gatherings lead to riots… I witnessed violence in the VIPs as well. You should be reporting exactly what you witnessed… I’m not going to tell you how to do your job. Why aren’t you reporting who creates the violence? There are so many things going on… How we treat each other should be showing ethos and respect. How can I make the decision for my team not to play a game that the whole of Greece had been waiting for? Unfortunately, the game is secondary… I’d say that we had a poor start… From that point on, Panathinaikos had a huge difference in rebounding and we made a lot of mistakes. Our game had been hesitant and indecisive. We lost many open shots. We had poor percentages. When we balanced the game, we moved the ball and took the lead. But percentages weren’t good; there has been a gap in rebounding and a miss-match in free throws. Spanoulis and Law shot 2 free throws both and Diamantidis himself 12”.
ACIE LAW: “I was guarding Diamantidis and felt they weren’t even letting me touch him. I saw fear in the refs’ eyes. In certain plays when I was guarding Diamantidis, I felt I wasn’t even supposed to touch him. He’s a huge player that has won dozens of titles, there is no question about it and tonight he and Ukic played a terrific game, but the refs did not allow us to get into rhythm. Powell had early foul troubles, Hines and I the same, resulting for the whole of the pressure to fall on Vassilis (Spanoulis) and Stratos (Perperoglou). There is nothing else we could do. We keep going because we still have to goals to go after”.