A nightmare in Moscow
Olympiacos was very far from his usual standards of performance and suffered a heavy loss in Moscow to Khimki (54-82), for the 19th day of the Euroleague.
Our team was leading 5-3 in the beginning, however, it actually sunk on both ends of the floor afterwards… Shots from the perimeter were not going in, the rebounds were lost and the Russians being very good from the 6.75m. arc "built" a +16 difference running a partial 20-2 (23-7 at 7').
Coach Sfairopoulos got to shuffle the deck; however, none of the used line ups was able to get into rhythm. The 'reds' were barely scoring, when at the same time, Khimki, taking advantage of the gaps in our team's defense, was easily finding the basket, increasing the margin even more (+25, 47-22 at 19' and +24, 49-25 at 20').
The outlook remained the same in the second half… The Russians not only maintained complete control (61-36), but further increased the distance (32p., 72-40 at 33'). Olympiacos tried to somewhat undercut the difference during the last minutes, however, despite the on target shots by Wiltjer, did not succeed in doing so (final: 82-54).
*Ioannis Papapetrou felt pain in the second metatarsal and will be medically assessed tomorrow (19/01).
*Jamel McLean was not able to overcome the muscle spasm experienced during the game against Maccbi Tel Aviv in the previous game and watched the game in civilian clothing.
The quarters: 28-14, 49-25, 65-38, 82-54.
Κhimki (Bartzokas): Shved 19 (2), Honeycutt 6(2), Vialtsev 3(1), Markovic 7(1), Μonia, Gill 7(1), Todorovic 4, Zubkov, Anderson 8, Jenkins 16(4), Thomas 12(2).
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Τoliopoulos, Papapetrou 4, Spanoulis 5 (1), Μilutinov 6, Strelnieks 10, Printezis 7, Papanikolaou 2, Mantzaris 3(1), Roberts 2, Bogris, Wiltjer 11(3), Τhompson 4.
"It's my responsibility to find a solution"
The 'reds' coach, Giannis Sfairopoulos, commented: "Congratulations to Khimki, they played better than us from the beginning to the end. We made a bad start, did not have focus and were very bad with our offense. We did not exploit on the shots allowed by our opponent. We also did not play in defense as we would have wanted. I think that we had a problem on both ends of the floor. It's the second very bad game we have played and it's my responsibility to find the solution so that this outlook changes. We have played four games in seven days and it's not easy to remain focused and perform at high standards on all four games".
"We apologize..."
The Olympiacos' guard, Vangelis Mantzaris, apologized for the bad performance of our team. "There is no explanation. We are disappointed. It's the second loss in a row that comes the same way. We need to figure out what's wrong fast and change it. This cannot go on. It's a shame following such a good game against Maccabi. We need to stick together, because good teams make it through tough times. There is no explanation for what's happening. We do our selves injustice. This performance does not represent who we are. It's a shame to become a laughing stock. The performance was disappointing and we need to change something immediately… We all need to self reflect and improve through hard work… Very hard games are coming… In Patras and in Europe… We need to change our image by … 200%. We apologize to our fans. They don't deserve this, just like we don't deserve it either. We promise to do whatever we can to change it".