A defeat in Milan
Olympiacos lost 99-83 in Milan to Armani Jeans for the 19th day of the Euroleague.
Our team was impressive in the beginning of the game on both ends of the floor. Birch was dominant, Papanikolaou was excellent and hence our team was leading at the beginning with the first quarter ending 15-21.
However, in the second quarter, the defense of the Greek champions was not as effective. Thus, the Italians with Sanders and Radulica being the focal points tied the game 41-41 at 20'.
In the third quarter, Pascolo decided to play the game of his life and Armani turned the game upside down and was leading 67-61 by its end. In the last quarter however, each time Olympiacos was trying to get close, the Italian team had all necessary answers and was maintaining the margin above five points.
Any control of the game or contact with the score for that matter were lost to Olympiacos in the last five minutes of the game and Armani got the 99-83 victory.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 15-21, 41-41, 67-61, 99-83.
Αrmani Jeans Milan (Repesa): McLean 10, Hickman 2, Kalnietis 5 (1), Radulica 7, Dragic 12 (1), Macvan 12 (1), Pascolo 15 (1), Cinciarini 7, Sanders 10, Simon 10 (2).
Olympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Green 10 (2), Birch 11 (8reb), Young 4, Papapetrou 5 (1), Spanoulis 8, Waters 4, Milutinov 5, Printezis 16 (2 3p, 2reb), Papanikolaou 11 (1 3p, 8reb, 1as, 2st), Mantzaris 9 (3 3p, 3reb, 3st), Lojeki.
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: "They deserved to win, they fought more than we did and showed they wanted this game more than us. Tonight, our big problem was with our defense. We did not play aggressive enough, we were not tough, we did not play as we play most of the other nights. I can only say we played good defense in the first quarter. But when your defense is so sub par and you allow receiving 58 points in the second half, you just can't win. There are games when our opponents score 58 points in a whole game and not in one half. This game can definitely become a very good lesson, but we cannot duel on it much longer, we need to move on. I would like to thank our fans that came here to support us, I'm sorry we weren't able to give back".
MILAN TOMIC: "We had said we wouldn't allow them to run. Stopping them from finding rhythm. Apart from the first quarter, we did nothing right. It's not a tragedy, we need to move on. We only lost a battle. I don't agree that Galata, or Maccabi or Armani are not good teams. We had said before the game that Armani is a very good offensive team, we had never said it was going to be easy. Except for the first quarter, nothing worked. The team needs to react from tonight already. The psychological reaction needs to come from within for every member of this team, we need to replace the "chip" in our minds and get ready for the next game".
GIORGOS PRINTEZIS: "When you want to boast about having the best defense in Europe, you cannot be playing like that. This team has been having a bad habit in the last five years, when a lot of optimism is around, grounding comes with a shock. Let's not forget that last year we did not even make the play-offs, we have a tough game on Friday and we shouldn't be talking much. We need to react because we have a tough game ahead of us. Up to now, we have had good reactions to all of our defeats. In general terms, we have lost games that we could have won, but this is this season's Euroleague. A lot of teams are eying to get passed us now, but it's better to have landed this way now, than have something unexpected befall us later on".