A bad night and a bad loss!
Olympiacos lost 80-71 to Galatasaray for the 26th day of the Euroleague RS, holds a 18-8 record, but continues holding to the home court advantage.
The game had an ideal start of the Greek Champions. The 27-14 score of the first quarter with excellent performances by Printezis and Spanoulis was pointing to a comfortable night at the gym. The Piraeus team continued the same way into the second quarter, with half time ending 48-35. However, things were different in the third quarter. The Turkish team ran a partial 11-22, which changed the whole outlook of the game and the score was 59-57 at 30'. In the last quarter, the 'reds' continued with very poor shooting percentages from behind the arc, Galata made a lot of improbable shots and hence got a psychological and substantial advantage succeeding the 80-71 victory at the end.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 27-14, 48-35, 59-57, 71-80
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Green 14 (2), Birch 7, Young 2, Papapetrou, Spanoulis 7, Waters 4, Agravanis 5, Milutinov 6, Printezis 14, Papanikolaou 7, Mantzaris, Lojeski 5.
Galatasaray (Ataman): Micov 18 (4), Fitipaldo 6 (2), Tyus 14, Kokmaz C. 3, Arar 4, Haciyeva, Pleiss 6, Daye 8 (1), Guler 8 (2), Diebler, Koksal 13 (1).
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: "It was a bad result a bad second quarter. We were not aggressive and did not play good defense, although we discussed about the defensive part at half time, since Galata is a very dangerous team that can be a credible threat should they get into rhythm. We missed a lot of open shots and lay ups, which caused a lot of nervousness defense wise as well. We move on, we are in a position where we are in control of the situation. We have four more games ahead and what happened tonight is a good lesson, in regard of assessments that we were already in the Final Four. The only thing we have secured is the play offs and we now need to fight for the home court advantage. That's our goal in the remaining games. That's what I had told my players before the game as well, but unfortunately the whole atmosphere was kind of celebratory … We need to focus on the next game, first on the Greek League one and then on the Euroleague".
ERICK GREEN: «We did not play the second half like we did in the first one and we did not play good defense. We lacked the intensity. Galata is a good team and exploited on that. We need to be good for 40 minutes. We may have secured the play-offs but this doesn't mean we have succeeded anything yet and we definitely need home court advantage. Our goal is winning every remaining game».
GIORGOS PRINTEZIS: «There's a lot you can say but we need to be self critical first. We lost to the same team twice. I don't want to say that we loosened up, but it has happened before and it may have to do with how we manage the score. We played good defense in the first half and took the ball to the post. In the second half, Galata was shooting better and messed with our offense. We have come a long way and we need to learn from our mistakes».
VLADIMIR MICOV: «We missed our opportunity to make the play-offs, but we had said that we would fight to the end. We have probably messed up the top 8 pool, because we beat Real Madrid and now we beat Olympiacos for the second time. I think they relaxed too much into the second half, because they were leading by 13 in the first. I think they stopped being aggressive. On the other hand, we played a tough game and made some incredible shots I should say. Of course, we played smart defense in the crucial parts of the game and moved the ball well in the offense. It's tough to say it was an important victory, because it doesn't change our ranking position. But, as I've said before, we are going to fight to the end».
ERGIN ATAMAN: «Basketball is a strange game. It wasn’t easy to find motivation, it was of no ranking interest at all. We made a terrible start, everyone thought we were going to lose by 30 or 40 points, however… I used players from the bench in the second quarter and they gave us boost. We need to be more aggressive. We allowed 12 offensive rebounds to go to Olympiacos in the first half. I saw starters with no motivation. At half time, we said it's a Euroleague game, we need to fight. We kept better distances and were luckier in the second half, because we made the threes when Olympiacos was shooting poorly from the perimeter. We got control and surprised them. We played good basketball, Tyus was more helpful than Pleiss. Olympiacos may win the Euroleague, we are not even in the play-offs, but we beat them twice this season and we enjoy it».