Stormed through Vitoria!
A dreamy Euroleague beginning for Olympiacos! After the road victory against Khmki, David Blatt’s players beat Baskonia in Vitoria 85-80 and have two victories in two games. Their next target is to make 3/3 on Friday (19/10, 20.00 CET) in the first European home game for the season against Armani Milano!
Nigel Williams-Goss had two fouls before even two minutes after the jump-ball were completed, forcing David Blatt to readjust his plans. Nevertheless, following the first five minutes (14-14), Olympiacos found rhythm, put pressure in the defense, “struck” from the perimeter with Axel Toupane and Kostas Papanikolaou and closed the first quarter leading 27-19.
Relying on Shengelia, the Spanish team run a 7-0 streak and closed in to one point (26-27, at 13’). The ‘reds’ however reacted immediately. With good defensive rotation, excellent ball movement in the attack and Nikola Milutinov dominating the post, regained full control and went to the locker rooms with a +11. The score of the first half (39-50) was written with a three at the buzzer by Vassilis Spanoulis.
Using its superb defensive game, which stopped Baskonia from scoring for five minutes, Olympiacos took the difference to +16 (42-58, at 25’), and did not stop there… The team continued playing with the same energy on both ends of the floor and was quickly at +19 (47-66, at 28’). However, a ‘baseball’ shot by Jason Granger that went in at the end of the 3rd quarter (52-67), seemed to have a totally negative impact on the reds.
Defensive gaps and terrible offensive operation allowed Granger and Shengelia turning the game into a derby closing in at 4p. (71-75) at 37’ and at 3p. (80-83, 37’’ before the clock ran out). Nikola Milutinov, who had a Euroleague scoring career high, was there for the ‘reds’ and sealed the victory for his team!
The quarters: 19-27, 39-50, 52-67, 80-85
Baskonia (Μartinez): Vildoza 7, Voigtmann 2, Huertas, Janning 6(2), Diop 2, Granger 17 (4), Poirier 10, Shengelia 21 (1), Garino 5 (1), Shields 2, Hilliard 8 (1)
Οlympiacos (Blatt): Williams-Goss 11 (1 3p., 3 as., 2 st.), Toupane 11 (3), Spanoulis 11 (13p., 8 as.), Τimma, Μilutinov 23 (11 reb), Strelnieks 10, Vezenkov 4, Printezis 5 , Papanikolaou 8(2), Μantzaris, Bogris 2, LeDay
«It’s very early to tell»
David Blatt maintained an extremely low profile following the victory in Spain. “It’s obviously very nice to watch your newly built team winning on the road such a quality team like Baskonia. I know how much quality they have, but I still don’t know what kind of team we are. It’s still very early to tell… We are a very new team, very ‘young’ and relatively inexperienced at this level to be making any kind of statement as to where we are heading. It’s certainly great to have begun that way. We played three amazing quarters and of course Baskonia was great in the last one. Should the game had lasted longer, I don’t know how it would have ended. Thankfully the clock ran out and we were able to complete the game leading. This was our third game in the last six days. We’ll see what happens in two days from now”.
The ‘reds’ coach was willing to joke and denied to have a question translated from Spanish to English… “I have come so many times at this gym I feel I have learned to speak Spanish”, he said and replied on why Olympiacos was out of rhythm in the last quarter: “I have participated some great games in this gym. Against great players and great teams. The current team is also a great one. What happened is that we began paying a lot of attention to the score hoping the game was about to end. We stopped doing what we had been doing with consistency in the previous three quarters. We lost our concentration and did not do what we had to be doing. We were worried more about what our opponents were doing and they took advantage of it. Many times, it’s not only what it is you are doing, but also what your opponent does, and our opponent player a very good game in the last quarter”.
On whether he sees both Baskonia and Olympiacos at the May Final Four in Vitoria, he replied: “Teams that want to go far, have four things to do… They need to have character, quality, good coaching and chemistry. It seems to me that Baskonia has a lot of these things. And I also think that our team has the quality and the character to allow us think how things are going to be evolving and that we can do something great this season. Where all of this is going to take us, well I don’t know, because it’s too early. It’s much too early for us, but also for me to be able to sincerely tell you how far we are going to go. I know we want to be the best team we can be and we have been working on that every day”.
The game’s MVP, Nikola Milutinov, pointed out: “Records are of no importance. I try to help my team and play well on every game. I do whatever I can to score, but also in defense and in anything the coach asks from me. It’s very hard to play here. We got a huge victory. We have had an excellent preparation. We had worked well and we are seeing the results”. On whether his goal is to return to Vitoria in May for the final four, he replied: “We want to return here, but we need to take it one step at a time”.
Kostas Papanikolaou commented: “We have made a very good beginning, however, the two games we have played for the Greek League show that we have a lot of ups and downs. It is certainly to be playing that good for the Euroleague. However, it’s still very early to be talking about big things. We have worked very intensely, but it’s going to need work from all of us to be playing according to our potential. It’s important that we have won in two courts that hurt us last season. We keep that move on”.
About how calm the team was, succeeding in moving the ball during the last critical minutes, he said: “We have worked very hard to bring things on the floor. This is part of the coach’s philosophy. There are going to be days that we are going to lose. We want to be playing good basketball. For us, it was a normal thing to do inside the game, but it’s good to hear that you played good basketball when it mattered. I look ahead and on what it is we can be giving to our fans next”.