Poor shooting and defense took their toll
Olympiacos was jittery and shot poorly against Maccabi Tel Aviv, lost 80-73 and now holds a 5-4 record after nine games for the Euroleague.
The Greek Champions made a bad start. Defense was not good, neither on an individual nor on a team level, resulting in the guests being able to score back to back points and take the lead. At first it was Weems and then Goudelock that caused a lot of damage with the first quarter ending 20-24.
However, each time that Olympiacos was building something good in offense to turn the situation around, the Maccabi players had an answer, either with some 'crazy' shots or with striking inside the post and half time closed at 37-44. In the third quarter, the Israelis continued shooting especially well while the 'reds' where mostly hitting the rim. Thus, instead for the margin to shrink, it only got wider and when the score was 49-65 it seemed irreversible.
However, the players under Giannis Sfairopoulos did not give up, they started taking down the difference, even contained it under ten points, but at the crucial last two minutes, the guests continued in the exact same offensive tempo and got the final 73-80 victory.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 20-24, 37-44, 49-65, 73-80.
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Green 10 (2), Birch 8, Young 2, Papapetrou 7 (1), Spanoulis 14 (0/6 3p.), Milutinov, Printezis 4, Papanikolaou 4, Mantzaris 3 (1), Hackett 6, Lojeski 15 (2).
Maccabi Tel Aviv (Hadar): Goudelock 12 (1), Rudd 6, Seeley 19 (5), Pnini, Ohayon 2, Weems 12, Alexander 2, Iverson 14, Zirbes 3.
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: "It was a night that nothing went well. We knew that Maccabi would want to open up the tempo and play one on one. We made a bad start with our defense, especially on one on one and allowed them to make their game, while we lost our concentration in offense. Maccabi 'closed' they way into post and allowed us long distance shots, but we missed a lot of open threes and then it made us nervous in regard to shooting in general, which messed up our defensive balance. We tried to turn the situation around in the third quarter and restart. Maccabi made a lot of open shots and took a wide lead. We tried for a final upset playing with 5 guards but we didn't make it. Maccabi deserved to win. We want to continue playing. However, this is Euroleague. There are nights with many big victories and big defeats. We need to stand our ground".
MATT LOJESKI: "We were trailing from the start. We missed a lot of shots. I don't think we played that bad, it's mostly that we missed open shots. They put us under a lot of pressure. We have had two tough games in a row and it's bad we couldn't pull through tonight. We now have a game against AEK which is not going to be easy".
KHEM BIRCH: "It was both offense and defense to blame. We weren't good defensively, we lost a lot of one on one battles. We could find easy baskets. Unfortunately, we lost the game. We weren't as tough throughout as we should have been. We were only tough in the last quarter, it's then we realized we could have won. We should continue moving forward. We know our defense has to improve to move on. There are still a lot of games to play both for the Euroleague and the A1".
RAMI HADAR: "Victory is a combination of two things that we deal with in Maccabi Tel Aviv. One has to do with basketball, defense and tactics and the other is spirit. I salute the spirit shown by our players".
DJ SEELEY: "We came here to play and aggressive defense and impose our tempo. We knew we could have played well in offense, but in the beginning of the season we faced some problems with our defense. So, we got together and said that the key to winning should be defense, because we have a lot of players that can score".
SONY WEEMS: "Defense was the key. We played defense for 40 minutes, for the first time. We succeeded in containing their big weapon, Vasilis Spanoulis. We have an offensive team, but we are capable of being efficient in defense at all positions. Olympiacos is a great team and they did try to come back. However, we didn't get nervous and reacted well".