A defeat for the premiere
A bad start with the Euroleague for Olympiacos. The Greek Champions lost 83-65 to Real Madrid in Spain, although they were in the game for 35'.
Vassilis Spanoulis was the one to take action in the first quarter to pave the way for the rest. The game was going point for point, but in the last two minutes the Madrilènes opened up the difference to 24-17. In the second quarter, the entrance to the game of Agravanis and Lojeski, gave Spanoulis more room and with these three to offer offensive help and with Young, Papanikolaou and Brich to substantially improve the defense, Olympiacos made the total upset and the first half closed at 42-40 with a beautiful basket by the captain.
The game was the same into the third quarter. A three by Mantzaris gave Olympiacos a 50-51 lead, but the hosts ran a partial 11-2, changed the momentum and the score quickly became 61-53. At that point, the lack of concentration, too many lost defensive rebounds as well as personal turnovers at very critical points in the game decided the outcome. Pablo Lasso's team found exactly what they were looking for, easy point in the open court, as well as many open shots, too many second chances and the game ended with the final -18 difference not doing justice by the Greek Champions, who fought hard for more than 30 minutes in Madrid.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 24-17, 42-40, 62-53, 83-65.
Real Madrid (Lasso): Randolph 7, Draper 2, Fernandez 7 (1), Doncic 11 (2), Reyes 6, Ayon 9, Carroll 10 (2), Hunter 4, Llull 22 (4), Tompkins 2, Τaylor 3 (1).
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Green, Birch 6 (10reb), Young 1, Papapetrou, Spanoulis 12 (2 3p, 4reb, 5as), Agravanis 6 (1), Μilutinov 2, Printezis 11, Papanikolaou 4, Mantzaris 3 (1), Hackett 6, Lojeski 14 (3).
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: "We came here to play a good game, to control the tempo and that's what we did in the first half. We played a good game on both ends of the court in the first half, with minor problems, but generally a good game, and it was only Llull that hurt us, especially in the first quarter. We did not play as good in the second half. Real reacted, they attacked on us with offensive rebounding, they only got one in the first quarter, but got nine in the second one and through offensive rebounding and the easy points they scored they gained psychology. Also, our offense wasn't good. We missed a lot of lay ups, we missed 2-3 chances with failed fast breaks or turnovers at critical moments in the fast break that deprived us of the opportunity to come back to the game. The final difference doesn't make justice, but that's basketball and 8 points can very easily become 18. Congratulations to Real Madrid, they deserved to win. Of course Real has a lot of good players, especially in the offense. They are a very good team, but I think that our great problem was our bad performance in the second half".
Asked on whether it was the third quarter that decided the game following Mantzaris' three and a fast break, the Greek coach said that "there was a moment in the third quarter when we led and had the momentum of the game, we stole the ball, ran the fast break, I don't know how it happened for Mantzaris to fall, maybe you saw it better than I did, but his non-call changed the momentum. However, we also lost a lot of lay-ups, a lot of easy baskets. In the last quarter, we went from -10 to -7, but it was also there that we missed a lot of opportunities to close the difference even more, we did not do that and allowed Real Madrid to widen the margin".
MILAN TOMIC: "I think that the game was decided in the second half. We completely controlled the game in the first half on both ends. They got only one offensive rebound in the first half and ended the game with a total of nine. When we got the lead following a three by Mantzaris, we had the opportunity to widen the margin, but we didn't. We even had the chance when we were trailing by 8, but when you play in Madrid against Real and you don't score and you take advantage of plays like these, it's difficult to win. I think the final difference shows a wrong picture for us. We did not have good offensive solutions in the second half. I don't want to say anything about the refs, we are only focusing on our game and our players. There are others to judge how the refs performed. Of course you can win and lose stuff with any game. We controlled the game for a long time, for 35 minutes. We need to visit again these 5 - 8 minutes when the difference got out of hand. We need to endure for 40 minutes. Both in Greece and in Europe".
KOSTAS PAPANIKOLAOU: "We played a very smart game in the first half, but we did not continue this way into the second. Then we did things we shouldn't have done. We lost a lot of defensive rebounds in the second half, we received many points in the transition contrary to what we did in the first half. That's not right, a 10 points game should not be ending at 18 but rather below ten. Our defense was good, we only had problems with defensive rebounding not on one on one defense. They are a team that engage the fans and use them in the game equation, they get 'hot' in offense and the difference widens up. We need to endure, see what went wrong, it's very early in the season, we have a lot of work to do, but we cannot be making excuses, the League is on and we need to be ready. I'm not good with numbers, we have people on the team that deal with numbers and percentages, the team has a lot steps to climb to reach the level we all aspire to reach. We need to fight in every practice to improve. Each one of us has to be ready to become better. We have shown at practice that we can play better, but we need to start doing at the games what have been practicing up to now. The game against Real is over, we will rest until tomorrow, we are now focusing on Panathinaikos. Efes is not in the picture right now. We all have to focus on the battle against Panathinaikos".