"Killed" Ifaistos and now is getting ready for Maccabi T.A.
Olympiacos practically 'destroyed' Ifaistos Limnou (score 83-46) and is now solely focusing on the home game of Thursday (25/10, 21.00 CET) against Maccabi Tel Aviv for the 4th day of the Euroleague.
Good defense and with Nikola Milutinov throwing a … party inside the post, allowed the 'reds' to impose the tempo from the beginning and build a +14 margin (19-5 at 7'). David Blatt's changes put a 'stop' on Olympiacos at first on both ends of the floor and gave Ifaistos the chance to close in with a partial run of 11-2 (21-16 at 13'). But that was as far as they went… The 'reds' put pressure on the defense, moved the ball in the offense and with Printezis, Papanikolaou and Williams-Goss leading the offense, replied with a partial score of 19-3, sending the difference to +19 (38-19, at 19').
Our team went to the locker room with a +18 (40-22 at 20') and refused to step on the brakes into the second half… For about five minutes, our players denied Ifaistos any contact whatsoever with the basket, while at the same time, playing dominating basketball, they ran a 10-0 streak sending the difference to +18 (50-22, at 25'). The guests tried to show some kind of reaction and with a partial 8-0 closed in at 20 (50-30, at 28'). However, the situation was irreversible… Blatt's players once again sped off, continuously broadening the difference (+37, 83-43 at 39') for the game to end at 83-46.
The quarters: 19-10, 40-22, 61-34, 83-46
Οlympiacos (Blatt): Williams-Goss 11(1 3p., 4 as.), Τoliopoulos 3(1), Τoupane 5 (3as.), Spanoulis 6 (5as.), Τimma 3(1), Milutinov 10, Vezenkov 9(8reb.), Printezis 9(1 3p., 8 reb.), Papanikolau 13(2), Μantzaris, Bogris 4, LeDay 10 (12reb.).
Ifaistos Limnou (Μanolopoulos): Μanolopoulos 5 (1), Μourtos, Gotcher 10 (2), Evans 5 , Brazelton 4, Stamatis 2, Charitopoulos 5 (1), Gontikas 2, Wiggins, Smith 11 (3), Freimanis 2.
«I liked the way we played»
David Blatt commented: "No game is easy until you make it one. I think that my players came on the floor with the right approach and made a huge effort. I'm happy that everyone got minutes and everyone contributed to the team. We gave minutes to all allowed them to come physically ready to the Thursday game. I sincerely think we moved the ball very well tonight. We did not take open shots. If we had, we could have probably scored 110 points. But I liked the way we moved the ball and played as a team. This team deserves is capable of more than 46 points, so we obviously did a very good job with our defense. They have already won one game this season and its certain they are going to win many more games".
The guests' coach, Sotiris Manolopoulos, said: "Congrats to Olympiacos, they were very good. We were very bad. I don't have a lot to say about the game. Olympiacos' aggressive defense totally threw us off. We wanted to remain competitive and control the tempo. However, when you make so many turnovers when attacking, you cannot control the tempo, especially with teams that run like Olympiacos does. I wish Olympiacos all the best".