A gutsy win over CSKA!
Olympiacos bested CSKA 88-86 for the 13th day of the Euroleague and hence co-habiting the top ranking seed with the Russian team. This victory has an even greater value given the absence of Giorgos Printezis and Nikola Milutinov.
Relying on good percentages from the perimeter, the Russian team took a 7p. lead (16-9), however, Olympiacos did not take long to react… "Striking" on all fronts (from the 6.75m. arc with Vasilis Spanoulis and Kostas Papanikolaou and inside the post with Jamel McLean) and with a partial 18-4, they were leading 27-20 at 11'. The 'reds' were leading even with 14 (35-28), however, CSKA ran a partial 11-0 and got to lead again (35-39) and despite the efforts by McLean and Thomspon, continued leading until the end of halftime (45-48).
Scoring mainly from the free throw line, CSKA 'built' a difference of 10p (52-62 at 26'), but the players of Giannis Sfairopoulos did not abandon the fight. With McLean making a heroic effort and a rather unorthodox line up (with Spanoulis, Strelnieks, Papanikolaou, Papapetrou and Thompson) to help him get some rest minutes, Olympiacos succeeded - through very tough defense - to make the upset! Spanoulis, Papanikolaou and Strelnieks carried the majority of the offensive load and did their best to give our team a 7 point lead (81-74 at 36'). The 5th foul for Kostas Papanikolaou at that point kind of disheveled the 'reds' that saw CSKA closing in to just two points (81-79). Olympiacos was struggling to score, however, kept the Russian at scoring 0 points, they got all the offensive rebounds and was once again leading by 5 (86-81 with 36'' to go).
Two missed free throws by McLean and a three by DeColo once again put the game on fire (86-84, 15'' before the end). And then the free throws roulette took over… with 9.5' to go, Ioannis Papapetrou went to the free throws line, making one (87-84), then at 5.7'' Rodriguez made both of his for the 87-86 and at 5'' Strelnieks also made one of two free throws to make the final 88-86, since a desperate three by the Russians did not go in.
The quarters: 23-20, 45-48, 64-68, 88-86
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): ΜcLean 25 (12 reb., 2st.), Papapetrou 8 (1 3p., 1 bl.), Spanoulis 16 (1 3p., 8 as.), Strelnieks 10 (1 3p.), Papanikolaou 15 (3 3p., 6 reb.), Mantzaris (2as.), Roberts, Bogris, Wiltjer 8 (2 3p., 5 reb., 1 as.), Thompson 6 (6reb., 1 as. 1 st.).
CSKA (Itoudis): DeColo 18 (1), Αntonov 7, Korobkov 2, Rodriguez 23 (5), Clyburn 13, Higgins 8, Kurbanov 4 , Hines 11.
«The players were willing to self-sacrifice»
The Olympiacos coach, Giannis Sfairopoulos, stated: "I would like to congratulate the players for this important victory. It belongs to them, because they showed their character and fought hard and got the victory. We played against one of the top teams in Europe and missing players to injury, this factor did not decide the game. Everyone who played gave their all for the team. I would also like to congratulate our fans for supporting the team. I believe we gave them a good win to make them happy for their support".
He continued both praising his players and also landing them to reality… "All the player showed to be strong characters, they played to self sacrifice, they dived to the floor to save the ball, we went after offensive rebounds a lot, especially in the last quarter, we renewed offensive plays, and this shows how much we wanted to win. The short line up at the end changed the tempo. We, in general, did not allow CSKA to build a wide margin, and we got to strike at the right moment. We had an amazing McLean tonight, who played yet another good game. But we also got to see how much we were missing our leader, Spanoulis, all that time. It was his best game so far this season and he has a long way to give even more. We go on with a low profile; Euroleague is tough, painful and difficult. Let's not forget that we are still missing some of our players. We were never all together, from the beginning of the season. We planned a different team during the summer, but injuries changed a lot. Congrats to the guys for their effort, but we need to keep a low profile. The road is long and hard and the strongest team will make it to the end.
On his decision to have Papapetrou play the center position, he said: "The line up with Papapetrou at this position paid off. That's where the game turned for us, with the effort these five guys made, without this meaning that all the others had not kept the team going up to that time. The small line up paid off on both ends of the floor. That's how we changed the tempo".
Asked if he thinks that this victory is an answer to the critic he himself and his player have received, the replied: "I have nothing to say with words. We work on the floor with actions. We continue working without distractions. The fans may be having a different opinion, winning, not liking certain things. However, the team is working, fighting, trying. We are human and we are going to be making mistakes, we are going to be losing games we were not supposed to lose, we are going to win big games, just like the one against Fener, just like we did with many games on the road up to now and this is no easy task. People need to understand that this competition is very hard to cope with, injuries disorganize. Tonight we saw a line up that turned the game around, but nevertheless, had never played together at practice. So, we created a situation during the game, despite these five players never having played together before. So we try to find ways to cover for our gaps. It's not easy to have players coming in and out of the team. It's not easy to manage this. It's not easy for a team to play under these circumstances. Should another team had suffered the number of injuries have befallen Olympiacos, they would have bent under the pressure. Olympiacos has a strong character and players that are willing to self sacrifice. The fans have their opinions; I do as much quality work as I can on the floor, the same goes for the players. We deal with our jobs and we always try to do the best for Olympiacos. Because Olympiacos is above everyone else".
On his part, the CSKA coach, Dimitris Itoudis, stressed: "Congratulations to Olympiacos. The believed in the victory more than we did and played with energy. Both teams were leading at times. The game was decided by details, one of which was offensive rebounding, that were filling the opponent with confidence. They grabbed some in a row. We did not stop their offensive weapons, like we had planned. We need to improve on that. We are now focusing on our next game". Asked whether his players relaxed when they were leading by ten, he replied: "I don't think that anyone relaxed with +10. Olympiacos has quality and good style of playing, but tonight we gave rooms to his players to play their game. We played wrong at defense and did not contain them. We seemed to be able to control the game, but not to relax at any case. We need to be playing better team defense".
«Olympiacos is a character team»
Character was the key to the victory according to Kostas Papanikolaou: "Everyone exhibited amazing character. They gave all they had. When defense works right, we usually do well. That's what was happening from a point on in the game. CSKA has lost games to offensive rebounding. It's not only scoring that makes a difference. Olympiacos has built character for years now and always fights".
The game MVP according to stats, Jamel McLean, stressed: "We played against a very strong team and got a great victory. Offensive rebounds are a very important element. When we played better defense, with switching, we operated better. I just played aggressive".