Refuses to lose to Malaga
Olympiacos bested Unicaja Malaga at the SEF 80-75 and kept on to the tradition that wants him to never losing at home to the Spanish team. This is the second victory in two games for the Euroleague.
Before the jumpball, Giannis Sfairopoulos had stressed that his team would have to impose the tone from the start and that's exactly what his players did… With good defense, complete domination in rebounding and offensive pluralism, they got to 'build' from the start a +15 margin (19-4 at 7'). Zone defense by the Spaniards created problems for the 'reds' offense, that saw the difference drop to 7 (21-14 at 12').
Olympiacos' perimeter stepped up and the difference was again up to two digits (+11, 27-16 and +13, 35-22 at 16'). Juan Plaza's players nevertheless, put even more pressure on defense, attacked the post with Musli and closed in on 33-37 at half-time.
With Hollis Thompson leading the offense, our team regained complete control (47-37 at 23'), while exploiting on the Spaniards poor shooting from the free throw line increased the margin to 15p. (63-48, at 32'). The guests once again did not give up… With pressing defense and an 8-0 streak (a 2-pointer by McCallum and two threes in a row by Milosavljevic), it took them less than 1 minute to have a 7 points game (63-56 at 33').
They did not stop there… Full court press led the Olympiacos players to back to back turnovers and allowed the guests to close in on at 3p. (65-62 at 35 and 71-68 at 38'). The 'reds' responded to defense with … defense! The pressed, stole balls and despite struggling to score, 'sealed' victory with Giorgos Printezis and Vangelis Mantzaris scoring decisive points.
* Before the jump ball, the Olympiacos BC owner Mr. Panagiotis Angelopoulos presented the former 'red' and now Malaga's center, Giorgi Shermadini with a commemorative award.
The quarters: 21-11, 37-33, 59-47, 80-75.
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): ΜcLean 6, Papapetrou 7(1), Agravanis 2, Μilutinov 12, 5 reb.), Strelnieks 5(1), Printezis 9, 6 reb.), Papanikolaou 6(1 3p., 3 reb., 2 as.), Mantzaris 9(1), Roberts 9, Bogris, Τhompson 15(2).
Μalaga (Plaza): ΜcCallum 14(1), Diaz 3(1), Salin 1, Diez, Μilosavljevic 14(2), Nedovic 7, Shermadini 5, Augustine 12, Suarez 7, Musli 12.
"Τhe most important thing is to win games"
The Olympiacos coach, Giannis Sfairopoulos, stressed the importance of the victory against Malaga: "It was a very important victory against a very tough team. I had said that before the game, they are a team with combative spirit. We were very focused from the start on both ends of the floor. We had not expected Malaga to play this way at that point in the game and we were sure they were going to react. This happened in the second quarter and towards the end of the game. I cannot say that I'm not satisfied with the way we played, that's why I would like to congratulate my players for the victory. But I cannot refrain from talking about certain parts in the game when we allowed points that could have been avoided. We need to learn from this mistakes that allowed the opponent to get easy score. They scored 28 points in the last quarter and we are not happy with that".
He went on to thank the team's '6th' player as well: "The good thing is we won a game in front of our fans. I'd like to thank them for the support. We have many things to improve and I think that with time and practicing we will get better. We are a team with many young players, we have had problems preparing due to injury. This is not an excuse, you saw that we fought and won the game. On the other hand, if we do not work together, we will not be able to improve as easy. The most important thing is to win games and that's what we did tonight. All these games are going to help us improve and become better as time goes by".
On his turn, the coach of the Spanish team, Juan Plaza, said: "I never talk about the refs. I may have my own opinions, but the refs have a very difficult task. I can say that there were some strange decisions, but one has either to be stupid or romantic to believe that refs don't make mistakes. Nevertheless, it's the first time in my career to see the bench get a technical for protesting an 8'' violation. There were mistakes, but when you miss 15 free throws and make 17 turnovers, you cannot be complaining".
"We remained calm"
Vangelis Mantzaris said the game was 'tricky'. "It was a very 'tricky' game. Malaga always plays at the same tempo. When we relaxed, they were closing in, Thankfully, we remained calm and got the win. We missed a lot of offensive rebounds, Musli really hurt us. We made stupid mistakes, they scored easy points and gained confidence". On the next Euroleague on the road game, he stressed: "Maccabi has a new team, they have shown very good elements, but we are going there to win".
The American forward, Hollis Thompson, said: "Malaga played very strong, but it's important we won. We need to stay focused in a view of very tough games ahead".
Nikola Milutinov said ups and downs need to be monitored: "Malaga is a good team. We have ups and downs. We cannot allow them, because they may cost us. We first have a Greek League game to play, that's what we are focusing on. Coach told us that whoever gets to play needs to be doing their best. We are Olympiacos, we need to fight for every game, no matter how many players are available". On his personal performance, he said: "I always try to play as best as I can. I'm happy if my team wins no matter if I play well or not. Like I said, no matter how much I play, I always try to be the best I can be. I want to be helping my team win and making the right decisions".