Second League defeat
Olympiacos lost 58-48 to Panathinaikos at OAKA and this is its second defeat for the Greek League.
Our team took a 0-4 and a 9-10 lead at the beginning following a three by our captain Vassilis Spanoulis. However, poor shooting and bad choices caused the Back2Back European Champions to trail 17-10 with the first quarter ending 17-12 in favor of Panathinaikos.
In the second quarter the Olympiacos defense got better and with a 5-0 run our team tied the game 17-17 and took the lead 22-23 with Mardy Collins assisting in both ends of the court. Half-time ended with the hosts leading 27-25.
Lojeski, Printezis and Dunston gave our team the lead 30-33 at 25’. However, the players under Giorgos Bartzokas then lost focus on defense resulting in losing a lot of defensive rebounds while they were also shooting extremely poorly and the third quarter ended 41-37 in favor of Panathinaikos.
In the last quarter bad shooting behind the arc continued. There were a lot of mistakes in both defense and offernse, the ‘reds’ were ‘stuck’ with the score amidst the quarter and finally met with a 58-48 loss.
Τhe quarters: 17-12, 27-25, 41-37, 58-48
Panathinaikos (Pedoulakis): Bramos 9 (1), Curry 12 (2), Fotsis, 6 (1), Ukic 2, Lasme 4, Μavrokefalidis 2, Gist 10, Diamantidis 10, Pappas, Jankovic, Maculis 3 (1).
Olympiacos (Barztokas): Dunston 8, Spanoulis 3 (1), Perperoglou 4, Sloukas 4, Collins 2, Simmons 3, Lojeski 10 (1), Printezis 8, Mantzaris 6 (1), Kavvadas.
ARGYRIS PEDOULAKIS: “I had said that it’s not good to always play against Olympiacos. We lacked energy at the beginning of the game. Lasme has had stomach problems that got to him and Ukic got into foul trouble very early in the game. We weren’t good in offense, but we built on the constant of our defense. When the game was hanging from a thread at the end Diamantidis and Mavrokefalidis helped us a lot. I would especially like to comment on Loukas. He has a very good mentality and knows how to wait and helped us a lot. We won the game because we read it better.Big games are usually decided on five against five. We try to build on this part of the game, but it’s not easy. The atmosphere was good in general and I think that we can all improve. We have a game in three days and we are concerned with energy levels. Coach Bartzokas is right to talk about injuries and fatigue. We have had this problem in the beginning and you were all against us. We don’t want to mess with our budget. We want a tidy situation. The administration stands by our side. You don’t need to sign a player if he can’t offer real help. You can for example work on Pappas. You cannot play for Panathinaikos if you don’t play defense and you don’t “read” the game. We have weaknesses, we are self aware and we try to solve our problems”.
JAMES GIST: “We came on the floor to implement our plan. Our defense made all the difference. When offense doesn’t work the way it should, then you should seek your defense to support you and that’s what we did today. We have a lot of work ahead of us and we need to stay humble”.
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “Congratulations to Panathinaikos on the victory. To win in OAKA, which is a very tough task, you have to be more productive and decisive in offense. The game was not a quality one, it was a closed game for 30 minutes and Panathinaikos took advantage of our indecision in offense. We stood no chance at winning with scoring 48 points. Even if we had won, we would not have the advantage to win first place, so one way or another our road will have to come through this court. I hope to be readier next. The shape you are in plays no role in this kind of games. We have come here twice and did not play well, something that has to do with Panathinaikos as well. Coaches have to handle the players’ psychology. They can understand by watching the video what went wrong. Maybe sometimes we have to use strong language to push them. The injuries Panathinaikos has had in the first round that cost them are now a problem of our own. We also have some players that aren’t at the top of their game, like Spanoulis and Sloukas. We have to get back into being healthy and help some players get better. It’s a fact that in both games at OAKA Spanoulis did not play well and he’s very important for Olympiacos. For whatever happens we and the opponent have equal responsibility. I think he thinks about it too much, maybe he should be more aggressive and stop thinking about it so much. I have faith in the way he thinks and I believe he’s going to react”.
VASSILIS KAVVADAS: “We did not get the result we had wished for, but this doesn’t mean anything. The season is very long. We’ll try to find what went wrong. We have to continue keeping our heads high”.