A huge win in Barcelona!
Olympiacos played one of its best games this season and got a huge win in Barcelona! The ‘reds’ bested the blaugrana 96-88 – for the postponed game of the 9th round of the Euroleague – with Kostas Sloukas being the game MVP and Aaron Harrison playing a key role in his first game following the injury that had kept him off courts for a month.
The ‘reds’ gave a perfect shooting percentage recital at the beginning of the game, absolutely restricted the hosts playing excellent defense and got to lead 12-0 at only 3’! Sarunas Jasikevicius called a quick time-out, however, wasn’t able to slow down our team’s tempo…
Kostas Sloukas went on dishing assists (5 in the first quarter), Charles Jenkins and Kostas Papanikolaou opened fire from the 6.25m., Hassan Martin ‘dominated’ both rims and the difference went to +16 (9-25 at 8’).
The ‘blaugrana’ took advantage of their height under the rim and closed in to two points (38-40 at 16’), Olympiacos nevertheless, did not allow them to come ahead … They found solutions with Shaquielle McKissic, Hassan Martin and Kostas Sloukas and succeeded in closing the first half still in the lead (47-51).
In the 3rd quarter, the ‘reds’ invested in their defense, received only 3 points in the first six minutes and with Kostas Sloukas and Kostas Papanikolau leading in the front court, they got to sent the margin to +13 (50-63). Barcelona tried to react, put pressure in the defense and closed in 61-67, but Olympiacos replied with Vezenkov and Sloukas and maintained control (61-72 at 29’).
Bad offensive choices and two fouls (one unsportsmanlike that was called on McKissic and an offensive one called on Sloukas) turned the situation upside down and allowed the hosts to tie the score 77-77 at 35’. Despite that, the Bartzokas’ players did not lose their focus… Aaron Harrison made some huge defensive plays, practically assisting the offense and together with McKissic, Sloukas and Vezenkov succeeded in regaining control and leading Olympiacos to a huge road win.
The quarters: 17-26, 41-51, 63-72, 88-96.
"Congratulations, but forget about the victory!"
The Olympiacos’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, commented: “I’m happy to be here once again and seeing you all. I don’t have much to say about the game. It was a special game for us. We had wanted to test how we measure up against such a strong team, the top one in terms of ranking and the one with the best defense. We scored 96 points against this defense. We had been leading throughout the game, we got contribution from many players on both ends of the floor and hence succeeded in winning. Congratulations to my players. It’s a big victory, however, the Euroleague is always the same… You have to immediately forget about the result, either you win, or lose. Especially for us, that we have two games this week, given the fact that we have to play in Belgrade against Crvena Zvezda. We have to prepare for this game tactic wise, but also to prepare mentally and physically. Just like I said before though, this is the Euroleague. I once again want to congratulate our players and wish Barcelona all the best”.
Asked which is the goal of Olympiacos, now that they have shown their potential playing with a full roster, he replied: “We are a new team. We have nine newcomers this season and every day, each practice is important to us, so that we get to improve our game and find chemistry. The whole COVID situation has not helped. We thought we were in good shape when we won in St. Petersburg against Zenit and then we beat Alba at home, but then we had four COVID cases and that forced for a week without any practice at all. Our chemistry went out of the window. At the same time, we were facing injury problems. I’m talking about Harrison who had been out for more than a month. Also, McKissic dealt with a problem as well and that broke up our chemistry. Each day is important. I feel that we are becoming better at every practice and what we need to be doing is to always focus on the next game. I don’t believe that any team, maybe with the exception of Euroleague’s top names, can say that they have specific goals. With the circumstances created by COVID, when you don’t know what tomorrow is bringing, you have to focus on what you have. That’s our approach… Stay together, improve our performance and at the end of the season see if we have made the playoffs”.
When asked to talk about this decision to return to the Olympiacos’ bench in the middle of last season and if he’s satisfied up to now, he stressed: “I had been unemployed for a year and I had been living here, in Barcelona, with my family. When I got the offer by the Olympiacos’ Presidents last January, who I have tremendous respect for since my previous run with the team, I accepted. I don’t need to explain that Olympiacos is a special team for me. We won the Euroleague together in 2013. I hadn’t been that positive about returning to Greece at first, however, they gave me the chance to lead the team again at a very important moment in its history. As you are aware, Olympiacos has legendary players in its roster, like Spanoulis, Printezis and Papanikolaou, and now Sloukas has returned also. Great players that may seem to be veterans, however, we had to rebuild the team somehow and we had to do it showing the respect owed to these huge players. It’s not an easy job, but the environment of the team is great. There is support for the coaches, the players… It’s a similar situation to that of Barcelona, but without the bad luck I have had when I was here! I feel great and I hope we are going to do a lot of things in the future. I also feel our fans have faith in us and that’s very important for Olympiacos”.