An ideal European beginning for Olympiacos!
Olympiacos won a big road game for his Euroleague premiere! Our team bested Khimki in Moscow 87-66 for the 1st round of the competition.
Lackluster defense and bad choices when attacking allowed the Russians a +10 (12-2), before even four minutes into the game were completed. However, the 'reds' reflexes were imminent. The pressed when defending, moved the ball correctly in the offense and with a partial 14-3 got to lead 17-15. Relying on good perimeter percentages and the Shved's 'hot' hand, Khimki succeeded in closing the first quarter leading 22-20.
Nevertheless, they were forced to permanently look at the backs of Blatt's players in the second one! Good defensive rotation, complete domination of rebounding (21 against only 8 for the Russian team) and passing the ball inside the post (another important factor in the first half's stats were the 13 assists for the 'reds'), gave Olympiacos the chance to impose the rhythm (29-36, at 17') and closed the first half leading by 10 (34-44) with a three by Spanoulis at the buzzer.
With Printezis, Spanoulis and Williams-Goss leading the way, Olympiacos raised the margin to +15 (36-51, at 24'), however, defense got relaxed, which Khimki took advantage of and closed in at 7 points (48-55, at 28'). The 'reds' got to wake up at that point… They once again played good defense, had excellent movement with the ball when in the attack, aimed right from the perimeter (not their strongest suit in the first half) and got to lead by +16 (56-73, at 33'). Shved was left alone to fight (61-73, at 38'), but it wasn't possible for him to turn the situation around all by himself… Blatt's players remained absolutely focused to the end, giving an epic character to a remarkable road victory with 21 points difference (66-87).
The quarters: 22-20, 34-44, 54-63, 66-87.
«We played very good basketball»
Olympiacos coach, David Blatt, appeared to be satisfied by the performance and the victory: "I said that before the game and I have said that many times in my career… Playing the first game on the road is sometimes an advantage to the guest team. There is a psychological dynamic in this scenario and it was obvious tonight. We used that advantage in the right manner. We played very good basketball indeed on both ends of the floor. Khimki is a quality team and they will be winning a lot of games this season, with the kind of roster and coaching staff they have. Winning here for the Euroleague premiere is very positive".
When he was told that Khimki got only two points from players coming from the bench, he said: "I didn't know that, but it's impressive. I don't remember anything like that. We had a plan for this game and our players remained focused on it. I'm familiar with many Khimki players due to the seasons spent together with the National Team of Russia. I have also coached Malcolm (Thomas) in the past, when with Maccabi. But despite knowing them, Shved got to score 34 points… So, what can I say… I think that our players did a great job on the rest of Khimki players and this reflects on the extremely low scoring our opponent got from their bench".
Σε ερώτηση για τον ρόλο του Βασίλη Σπανούλη στον φετινό Ολυμπιακό, απάντησε: Asked about the role of Vassilis Spanoulis in this season's Olympiacos, he replied: "The great thing about coaching Vassilis has to do with his personality! He understands what needs to be done for the team. This is a new team, a different team, a more youthful team. I don't think that his role has changed. He's still the leader. What has changed, is how we need to share responsibility on what is happening on the floor. And not always throw the burden on his shoulders and ask him to maybe do things that are probably not appropriate to how long he has been serving this team. But due to his personality and his will to play basketball and win, he elevates the rest of the players… You will be seeing a few different things, but not because he's less effective or great. He's one of the few greats of all times in European basketball and he deserves this title".
«We are not where we want to be yet»
Sasha Vezenkov, who was among the best players of the game, pointed out: "All teams are tentative in the beginning… Not any one is 100% ready… The team that would shape the game to its standards was going to win it. We had known that our opponent relies on three point shooting, that they are aggressive, so we needed to be playing very good defense. The coach had told us that should we be playing good defense and fight for every ball, we would be having in increased chance at winning. That's what we did and we won. Stopping Khimki at 66 points in their home court is a very good thing, but we are still at the beginning of the Marathon".
And went on to say: "For a team to be great, it needs to be reading the game thoroughly and switch on every screen. If you don't do that, the opponent will be punishing you. We had to stop Khimki from running… We did it and that's how we lowered their scoring productivity. However, we still have a lot to improve, we are where we need to be yet".
On where he owes this improved version of his basketball self, he said: "I worked a lot in the summer and I'm also thinking more clearly… I feel good inside… I don't want to be repeating myself, but I feel very well during the week. Some nights are going to be good, some many not so. This is the new Olympiacos… Getting the max in different parts of the game".
Finally, asked on whether he had been stressed, he replied: "I'm always stressed when I play, but I try to turn this stress into a creative one. When you play defense, you always earn minutes, it's a fact… The team deserves the accolade, but we have too many games ahead of us and the road is a difficult one".