A battle is lost, the war is still on
Olympiacos was not able to exploit home court … The team lost the first Euroleague playoffs game to Zalgiris 78-87 and will give it all on Friday (20/04, 20.15 CET) to tie the series.
The 'reds' plan worked perfectly in the first 8 minutes. Good defense, dominating the rebounds and good offensive choices allowed our team to lead by 14 (22-8). Zalgiris, that was scoring mainly with Davies in the first quarter (he scored 8 from the 12 points the Lithuanians scored during that time), pressed at three quarters of the floors and created serious offensive problems for our team. All the more, they absolutely dominated rebounding, found target from the perimeter and were able to tie the score at 32 points at 18'. Vassilis Spanoulis though got to score two back to back threes and gave Olympiacos a 6 point lead (38-32, at 20').
With Pangos spearheading Zalgiris' offense by striking from the three point line, the Lithuanians were able to get ahead in the score at 26' for the first time (45-46). Vangelis Mantzaris and Vassilis Spanoulis gave solutions from the perimeter and regained the lead for Olympiacos (52-46). They weren't able to maintain it though… Our team continued having problems with the Lithuanian's physical game, who went ahead again (56-57, at 32'). Once again the Sfairopoulos player reacted immediately and with a 7-0 streak got to lead by 5 (63-57, at 34').
However, they weren't able to maintain the lead this time either… Scoring mainly from the "charity" line, the guests responded with a 9-0 run and found themselves leading by 1 (65-66). Spanoulis and Papapetrou "run" a partial 4-0 (69-66), but Zalgiris "played" on its good perimeter percentages and was vindicated, since they got to lead by 3 (69-72, 54.7'' before the end). With about 38'' before the end, Spanoulis tied the game 72-72 with a three, but Olympiacos missed a great opportunity to win the game, since following the excellent defense McLean played on Davies, he was not able to score in the team's last offense (the 'reds' turned the ball over).
Zalgiris continued shooting with high threes percentages which allowed them to take the lead and impose the tempo (76-82, with 1:40'' to the end of the overtime) and make the break winning the game 78-87.
The quarters: 23-12, 38-32, 56-53, 72-72. Overtime: 78-87
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): ΜcLean 6 (6 reb.), Brown, Papapetrou 11 (1 3p., 7 reb.), Spanoulis 25 (5 3p., 9 as.), Μilutinov 7 (8 reb.), Strelnieks, Τillie 3(1), Printezis 12 (5 reb.), Mantzaris 9 (2), Roberts 5, Τhompson.
Zalgiris (Jasikevicius): Davies 21, Pangos 20(3), Toupane, Udrih 4, Jankunas 4, Milaknis 16(4), Μicic 7, White 8 (2), Kavaliauskas 2, Ulanovas 5 (1).
«Calls were not made under the same criteria»
Giannis Sfairopoulos stated: "We lost the home court advantage tonight. It was a close game that was decided at overtime and when the game goes there, each team can win. It's a series of games and we now need to fight on Friday to tie it and go to Kaunas and fight the next two games and finish the series there. We have some players that are not in the best physical shape or condition following their injuries. This did not help our game".
And he continued pointing out that the refs did not play on a "50'50" basis: "I would also like to stand to what happened after the regular season game and the comments of my colleague with Zalgiris. He attacked the refs and tonight he got to influence them. I don't think that the officials called the game using the same criteria for both teams. We saw simple contacts offering Zalgiris free throws while we never got the same advantage. We respect the refs and the Euroleague procedure, but we have been witnessing teams regularly talking about the officiating. We never did that and it was probably perceived as weakness on our side or maybe they thought that we were happy but what was being told against us. At the end of the day it's important to have an equal distance officiating and this was not the case tonight. I can see a scheme behind all these… Everyone is complaining, sending out DVD's…"
About the injured players, he got to say: "I really don't know about them. Milutinov was hurt during the game and played after an injection. We'll get to see tomorrow…Strelnieks asked me to pull him out at some point because he wasn't able to continue. All these injuries messed with our chemistry. The most important thing is that we are not going to be having all of our players at our disposal to be at the optimal shape during these critical games. We don't give up though. We'll fight".
Asked if there is any particular reason Zalgiris has been giving his team a hard time, he replied: "It's a matter of solutions available. You see that we make a good start in all of the games, we take a wide lead, but then our performance wanes because we don't have all our players available for a more open rotation. Despite that, we are not giving up, we are going to fight, we are going to tie the series on Friday to win it in Kaunas".
«It's incredible that we won in this gym»
"Congrats to my players. It's incredible that we won in this gym against this team. I hope that my players understood what the playoffs atmosphere is like. I expect us to be even better in the next game. We need to correct parts of our game and some mistakes. My players were determined and showed they have character. To advance, we need to play better and smarter, to pay attention to details and not consider any possession as a given".
Asked about his statements on the officiating before the game, he replied: "You are the ones that have created this upheaval. I was asked in Kaunas and simply replied. I have friends in Athens who told me how my statements were presented here. You are the ones that said I demanded 50-50 officiating. What I said was that the best referees ought to be calling these series and that they should be using equal criteria for both teams. That's the only thing I'm asking for, I'm sure it's the same thing Giannis Sfairopoulos said. It's not a matter of translation, what I said is very clear. But you have the power. Every game is 50-50".