Delightful…
Olympiacos played a great game against Unics Kazan, won 88-59 and now holds a 7-4 record 11 days into the Euroleague RS.
The Piraeus team playing great basketball from the beginning to the end of the game, bested the team of Evgeny Pashutin with +29 and are now with a 7 wins/4 losses record. The 'reds' imposed their game from the start and the difference was up to two digits (13-2) early on, while the first quarter ended 24-16.
The Greek Champions continued on high gear into the second quarter. With continuous scoring by Spanoulis, Printezis and Lojeski half-time was 43-28. In the third quarter the difference was up to 22 points since the Olympiacos' offense was functioning in an exempla nary fashion and the 68-42 score at 30' perfectly depicting the whole game.
Olympiacos continued exactly the same way in the last quarter and got a comfortable 88-59 victory.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 24-16, 43-28, 68-42, 88-59
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Green 15, Birch 5, Young 5, Papapetrou 4, Spanoulis 10, Milutinov 4, Printezis 11 (1), Papanikolaou 12, Mantzaris 5 (1), Hackett 2, Lojeski 15 (1), Athinaiou.
Unics Kazan (Pashutin): Johnson 3, Antipov, Langford 25 (3), Stoll 2, Parakshouski 4, Colom 4, Klimenko 3, Voronov, Panin 3 (1), Kaimakoglou 6, Williams 9.
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: "Hackett suffered a muscle rapture and he will be probably away for a long time. We played a very good defensive game, one of our best in the season, we were focused into stopping their creativity and scoring, and we kept Langford at low standards, since although he scored 25, he had only scored 11 up to the third quarter. His scoring at the end was of no significance, while he had no assists either. We also did a very good job with Colom as well, who is a very important player for Unics and he has had double digits in assists in previous games. Parakshouski was also out of game rhythm due to good one on one defense, but also adaptations of team defense. A game that seemed so easy at the end, was really not one at all. My players made it an easy one, because they played well on both ends of the floor. We played a great team game, with good rotation, five double digit players and had the opportunity to use all our players who responded very well. We have to forget about this game and focus on the Sunday game against Rethymno. I would like to thank our fans for coming here to support us.".
EVGENY PASHUTIN: "I don't know what I can say after a game like that. We did not play well in defense, we had no heart. When you don't fight, you can get nothing. It's my responsibility. Olympiacos was better and deserved to win. We did not show up on the floor".
KOSTAS PAPANIKOLAOU: "We played one of our best defensive games. Many can say that it was an easy game, but we turned it into an easy one with our performance. We saw that Unics beat Fener and hardly lost to Real, so they are a good team. The key was how dealt with Langford, all they guys that had to play him, while we also contained Parakhouski. Our technical staff and asked us to focus on rebounding and this was another important element. It was a good team effort and everyone deserves congrats for the victory".
ERICK GREEN: "We played a very good game. We started strong from the beginning; we were good in defense and found easy baskets. All the guys did a good job on Langford and we contained his activity. He's a prolific scorer, but we played him very well. We now have the game against Rethymno and then we are going to Kaunas, against a good team in a tough court".