Die hard! (vid)
Olympiacos beat Baskonia in the prorogation 91-87 (80-80 at 40') for the 17th round of the Euroleagueand remains alive in the pursuit of the top four seeds!
Baskonia wanted to take advantage of the absence of Nikola Milutinov - the Serbian center has the flu and he was hospitalized - and 'struck' in the post with Poirier. Thanks to dominating the post, their excellent two point percentages and good defensive game, the Spanish team, despite their missed threes (0 for 4 against 2 for 4 for the 'reds') closed the first quarter leading 22-20. Olympiacos put pressure on the ball in the perimeter so as to stop it from going inside the post and with a partial 6-2 took a 2 point lead (26-24). However, when the guards of the guests entered the equation, Baskonia got to lead with +7 (40-47, at 19'). Finally, with 2/2 free throws by VassilisSpanoulis and 1/2 by GiorgosPrintezis, our team closed in 43-47 at the end of the first half.
The Spaniards increased the distance further (8p., 43-51), however, with good defense and Kostas Papanikolaou being all over the place, Olympiacosreplied with a partial 12-2 and came to lead the score (55-53, at 27'). Nevertheless, all that the 'reds' fought to build was brought down in just three minutes. Terrible choices on both ends of the floor allowed Baskonia to regain control (55-64, at 31'). Zack LeDay took over and assisted by the aggressive defensive game of our team, the 'reds' had a one point game (67-68, at 35'), but the Baskonia guards once again widened the distance (+ 7, 67-74, at 36').
David Blatt's players did not give up the fight…They pressed when defending; Nigel Williams-Goss forced Poirier's 5th foul at 37' and came as close as to one point (73-74). There was a 'blank' two minutes period after that for both teams, until Vildoza scored a three at 39' that made the score 73-77). With 2/2 free throws 27.2'' before the end, Kostas Papanikolaou made a two point game for the 'reds' (75-77), Hilliard had 1/2 (75-78, 16.9''), Williams-Goss scored with a lay-up to make the score 77-78 (14.3''), Vildoza made both his free throws to give the guests a 3 point lead (77-80, 13.1'') and Kostas Papanikolaou tied the game beating the buzzer with a three, to send the game at overtime.
There was only one team during the extra five minutes, and that was Olympiacos! The 'reds' played with passion, dominated all areas of the game and with Kostas Papanikolaou consistently leading the 'reds', our team got a most valuable victory.
The quarters: 20-22, 43-47, 55-62, 91-87.
Οlympiacos (Blatt): Williams-Goss 17 (33pm, 6 as.), Τoupane, Spanoulis 4 , Τimma, Strelnieks 2, Vezenkov, Printezis 19 (5 as), Papanikolaou 22 (6/7 3pm, 6 reb, 2 as, 1 st, 2 bl), Mantzaris, Bogris 4, LeDay 23 (9 reb, 1 bl)
Baskonia (Perasovic): Vildoza 19 (2), Voigtmann10 (1), Huertas 17 (1), Janning 8 (2), Diop, Poirier 17, Shields 3, Hilliard 13 (2)
«I had fun!»
It took Olympiacos an extra five minutes to bend the strong resistance of Baskonia, however, coach Blatt had only good things to say about his players and their effort: "Many credits to my players for showing a character and a no-quit attitude, that's needed in such a game. I have to congratulate Baskonia, because they played better than us for the most part of the game. However, this is that makes this sport so special. It's a forty minute's game, sometimes more, but if you stay together you have the chance to overcome the difficulties and win. That's what we did tonight, all the more emphatically so. Many guys made big plays, but especially what Kostas did was extraordinary. I had a lot of fun, I hope you did too! For this team, such a victory is much more than a simple win, becauseit builds you character".
On the bad defensive performance of his players in the first half, he said: "They are team with a great combination of very experienced and young players. I think that our experienced players in a way took the emotional responsibility for what was happening and pushed the rest of the guys mentally as to upping their performance, because they saw that the game was not going as planned"
He then talked about the absence of Nikola Milutinov and complimented Zack LeDay: "It's not easy to play against Panathinaikos on Friday, play a derby against AEK on Sunday and two days later play a team like Baskonia, all the more, having suddenly lost one of your most important players. It was wonderful to see Zack LeDay do what he did. He had been kind of down in the previous games, which is only natural for a Euroleague rookie, but what he did and the character he showed was exquisite".
Due to the sudden absence of Milutinov, he was asked if he feels not acquiring one more big player has been risky: "We have Agravanis, who we expected to come back earlier. We felt that with Milutinov, LeDay and Bogrinio who can come on the floor and play 10-15 minutes like he did tonight, we would be just fine. I don't think we took a risk. What can you do when someone wakes up with a fever? It's bad luck. You always think of what you have, we look at what we have. We have many guys with character, they work hard, and theyplay for the team and want to do the best for the team. Sometimes, this is more important than getting one more player. It's a particular time in the season; many teams have been facing difficulties, and that's why we need to give my players an extra point".
When he was told that in previous years the last shot would always be one for VassilisSpanoulis to take, he replied: "Vassilis was not on the floor to take the shot. If he was, then maybe he could have taken it. I think that the way the game evolves, you cannot always expect the same player to take the last shot. First of all, because it's easy for a team to predict that and make plans to deal with it. I think that the shot Kostas made was brilliant, however, I felt that Kostas' attitude and his fighting were the ones to make the difference in the game and not that shot".
In regard to the 11 minutes VassilisSpanoulis got to be on the floor, he said: "It wasn't the plan that he would be playing 11 minutes. I just coach the way I feel would be giving us more chances to win. I used line ups with bigger size, that would work better defense wise. I did that against Fener as well, but we lost. For sure, the plan wasn't that he would be getting 11 minutes; it was something I felt I had to do. It was unusual and will remain unusual because it's not something you will be seeing again. I can guarantee you that. You know me and you know my career. I have coached some great players and Spanoulis is indeed among the top ones. However, if I feel that I have to bench him, him or anyone else so that the team has a greater chance at winning, then I will be doing so. Despite that, he's among the top players in the long list of great players I have coached".
Finally, when asked if there is going to be an addition, he replied: "For this team and the way it came, it's worth more than face value. It builds a winning character for a team. I don't know how I should be answering to have this question stop being made. I like our team and to move to any signing, it will have to be something exceptional. At this moment, I'm very happy with the group of players we have. If we had brought a new player before tonight's game, we would have lost, because we would have lacked the chemistry, the trust and the attitude, since the players would be feeling threatened by a new team mate. It may be that we would be getting better down the line, but we would not have won tonight. It's easy to sign a player. I can do it right now, but I don't know if this is the right thing to do for the team. We'llsee. Butrightnow, it'sano".
On his part, Baskonia's coach, VelimirPerasovic, pointed out: "I would like to congratulate Olympiacos for winning. It was a hard loss for us, because I think we had a great chance at winning tonight. We were leading by 4, but we lost because at that point we played a very loose game. We did not foul when we were leading by 3 and lost. Once again, congrats to Olympiacos. We should have fought harder".