A defeat at the OAKA
Olympiacos lost at the OAKA to Panathinaikos 80-93 for the 6th round of the Euroleague.
David Blatt made a bold move in the coaching chess board and lined up a unique quintet with Spanoulis, Timma, Papanikolaou, Printezis and Milutinov. The game was balanced in the beginning, despite the fact that the Latvian forward was 'hot' from the start. Thanks to perimeter percentages, Panathinaikos got a 5 point lead (17-12), which Olympiacos succeeded in matching very fast, thanks to his good defense and the good perimeter percentages by Axel Toupane (21-21).
Our team got the lead (21-23 at 10') with two free throws by Kostas Papanikolaou and never trailed after that. The hosts tied the game 29-29, however, with efficient defense, good ball movements and Janis Timma and Giorgos Printezis leading the attack, the 'reds' imposed the rhythm and 'bult' a +9 margin (35-44 at 18'). Nick Calathes took over to lead the 'green's' counter attack (41-46), but Giorgos Printezis was there once again writing the final 41-48 which closed the first half.
Nothing worked right in the third quarter for our team though… Difficulty with scoring, too many missed free throws and defensive gaps allowed Panathinaikos to pass the ball into the post scoring easy points, that resulted in the hosts turning the game around and lead by +10 (67-57, at 29').
Timma, Printezis and Milutinov returned on the floor and with them Olympiacos got to return to scoring (running a 7-0 streak and closing in 67-64 at 31'). The tables however were turned… Panathinaikos was quite good at scoring from the perimeter, when at the same time Olympiacos was barely scoring from the three point line. The result was that the hosts controlled the game and found themselves leading by +12 (88-76), so the game was practically decided…
The quarters: 21-23, 41-48, 67-62, 93-80.
Panathinaikos (Pasqual): Thomas 9(1), Langford 3(1), Papagiannis, Lasme 5, Papapetrou 7(2), Pappas 3, Gist 10, Lekavicius 17(3), Lojeski 10, Calathes 14(2), Antetokounmpo 12, Mitoglou 3 (1).
Οlympiacos (Blatt): Williams-Goss, Toupane 9(1), Spanoulis 4, Τimma 17 (5), Μilutinov 11, Vezenkov 2, Printezis 26 (1), Papanikolaou 4, Μantzaris, Bogris, LeDay 7 .
"We didn't do the simple stuff in the second half..."
David Blatt commented: "Congratulations to Panathinaikos. We had two different games. We were better in the first half, but our opponent played much better than we did in the second one. You cannot win many games when you lose 20 rebounds. Panathinaikos is a very good team to allow them second and third chances at scoring. When you don't get your defensive rebounds, you cannot run and play the way we want to. That's the storyline of the game".
Asked about the performance of his perimeter players, he replied: "The opposing guards played better and superseded. I don't have any further explanation. Your comment is true. This was an important aspect of the game. I don't have anything else to say". About Vangelis Mantzaris, he said: "Maybe he should have played more tonight".
About a number of the red's players that played their first "eternal" derby… "It's a factor", coach Blatt commented and went on: "A way to balance out is to be good at defensive rebounding and not make turnovers. We did not manage to do that. Our players need to live through these games to evolve. In the first half, despite the atmosphere, we showed to have quality and stood our ground. We did not make it in the second half, because we did not perform well when doing the simple stuff. We did not get our defensive rebounds and we were losing the ball. I was being honest when I said that 20 offensive rebounds are too many. It's hard to manage that. You have to receive less than 80 points to win here".
The next rendezvous between the two teams is not far away, since they will be playing against one another for the 6th day of the Greek League… "Other games precede this one. I need to think how we are to approach these games. It's going to be a tough game with a lot of importance in terms of the championship. We are going to be ready, but first we need to prepare the other games".