Nothing is lost...
Olympiacos lost 64-60 in Istanbul for the third game of the play-offs series against Anadolu efed and now the Turkish team leads the series 2-1.
The first quarter began with the two teams going head to head. Olympiacos was attacking a lot from the low post with the first quarter ending 14-17 in favor of the Greek champs. The Piraeus team played great defense in the first minutes of the second quarter and succeeded in leading 17-24, but with a partial 6-0 the Turks closed in 23-24 and then took the lead (27-25) before Birch tied the game 27-27, two minutes before half time. From that point on, another 6-0 partial made the score at half time 33-27 and then another 6-0 shaped the 39-27 at 23’.
Olympiacos was still facing trouble in offense into the third quarter. The hosts kept the ‘reds’ at ten points in a whole quarter, which ended 51-37. From that point on, Olympiacos got moving. With successive threes by Vasilis Spanoulis and a partial 10-23, Olympiacos had a one point game (61-60), but captain missed his last three and the game ended 63-60.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 14-17, 33-27, 51-37, 64-60.
Anadolu Efes (Perasovic): Thomas, Honeycutt 6, Balbay, Brown 12, Οsman 4, Granger 11 (1), Heurtel 13 (1), Paul, Dunston 16, Κirk 2.
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Green 8 (1), Birch 6 (7reb), Young 3, Papapetrou 5 (1 3p, 7reb), Spanoulis 15 (3 3p, 7as), Waters, Αgravanis, Μilutinov, Printezis 8 (7reb), Papanikolaou 7, Mantzaris 8 (2).
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: “First of all I would like to congratulate Efes on their victory. I think we lost the game due to our offense tonight. We did not make any good decisions in the offense, we did not read correctly what the defense was allowing and for 30 minutes we were lacking the ‘spine’ and were not moving the ball properly. When you hold your opponent at 64 points on the road, you get to win, should you be a little better in the offense. Unfortunately our offense was not good, we made 18 mistakes, they are too many for a game on the road and many of them weren’t even under pressure. All these mistakes was the product of lack of concentration. At the end, we tried to turn the game, but a rebound lost, an easy basket for Efes, a failed fast break on our part, did not allow us to steal the victory. Efes is leading 2-1, they are one victory away from the Final Four and we now have to fight for our chance to tie the series”.
VELIMIR PERASOVIC: “It was a very important game for both teams. Olympiacos was better in the fourth quarter, they came back, it’s not easy to play against them, since they know how to cope with such games. I know, that despite the victory, the next game is going to be even harder ”.