Did his duty against Kymi
Olympiacos bested Kymi at the SEF 93-78 for the 15th day of the STOIXIMAN.GR Basket League.
With Nikola Milutinov dominating the post, our team got to lead 17-11. However, it lost its concentration next (our coach Giannis Sfairopoulos had a lot of complaints from the officiating and was actually called a technical) and Kymi, relying on good perimeter percentages succeeded in getting the lead and closing the first quarter ahead by 4 (25-21). The guests were leading by 8 at 14' (29-37), however, with pressing defense and Vasilis Spanoulis together with Vasilis Toliopoulos leading the offense, the 'reds' run a partial 10-0 and got to lead again (39-27 at 16').
Halftime found the two teams tied (46-46), while the 3rd quarter had all characteristics of a derby… Olympiacos did not make the best possible offensive choices, at the same time, Kymi would continue executing with excellent perimeter percentages, which allowed them to close the 3rd quarter leading 66-65. In the last seven minutes (70-70, 33'), however, our team's outlook completely changed… With good defense, Kyle Wiltjer executing from the perimetere and Nikola Milutinov playing without an actual opponent under the rim, Olympiacos run a partial 17-3, got to lead by 14 (87-73 at 37') and actually sealed the victory.
* The 28year old forward Kostas Papanikolaou was not included in the delegation, due to rotation.
* Before the jump ball and immediately following the teams' presentation, the players and the technical staff headed towards the banner at Gate 7 that read "You never left us 8/2/81" and left a rose to the memory of the 21 people that lost their lives during the disaster befallen on Gate 7 of the Karaiskakis stadium during a football game. The Kymi players also paid respects.
The quarters: 21-25, 46-46, 65-66, 93-78.
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Spanoulis 15 (2 3p.,8 as.), Μilutinov 15 (11 reb.), Printezis 9 (4as., 2 bl.) , Μantzaris 7 (1), Τhompson 2, ΜcLean 4 , Τοliopoulos 11 (3), Papapetrou 2, Strelnieks 2, Roberts 15 (2 3p., 4 as.), Bogris, Wiltjer 11 (3).
Κymi (Kastritis): Manolopoulos 13 (3), Okereafor 2, McGhee 9, ΜcFadden 21 (4), Smith 9 , Geromihalos 1, Τsangkarakis 8 (1), Jones 9, Glyniadakis 2, Kyser, Barlos 4, Μαrgelis.
«We did what we had to do»
Our team's coach, Giannis Sfairopoulos, pointed out: "It was a game that did what we had to do to win and did what we had to do throughout, however, defense wise, especially in the last quarter and mainly in the last minutes of the game. We could have played better defense, we sure were not up to required standards. Kymi is a team with very athletic foreign players. It was a very demanding game energy wise. I think we were lacking energy due to the effort the game against Fenerbahce took. However we did what we had to do when it mattered. We only received 12 points at the end and we had 25 assists against 9 turnovers against a very competitive team. We are focusing on the next game".
Asked whether it's a challenge for the coaches to prepare their players for games against teams of lesser capabilities, he replied: "The players have the experience to understand that these games are dangerous. Despite your level, if you don't play well, you'll lose. And we have so many games to play… The other team is preparing well throughout a whole week for such a game and they are thoroughly prepared tactic wise. The teams that have to play European competitions, should they not be ready energy and mentally wise, are easy to win. And that's something we get to see even more in Spain, even in Russia. You cannot always play to win by 30 points. It's not possible with basketball, anywhere in the world. The other team plays too, they cannot be dismissed. For example, McFadden is the top scorer of the Greek League. Each team has good aspects in their game, and if you underestimate them, you are going to lose. Of course we did not underestimate Kymi, but we lacked a little more aggressiveness with our defense to do what we did at the end a little earlier on".
Finally, when asked to comment on a report according to which Olympiacos is contemplating a change in the roster, he replied: "I was told that there were rumors in the web. Do you think that we are searching the market and I don't know about it? Because it really amazes me to read stuff like that. The report is unsubstantiated. We continue as is".