bwin Monday Night Against Covid-19: Olympiacos – Ιonikos 88-93

Olympiacos lost to Ionikos Nikaias 88-93 in a friendly game for the “bwin Monday Night Against Covid-19” program.

Vassilis Spanoulis, Sasha Vezenkov and Kostas Papanikolaou watched the game from the sidelines, while the coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, chose not to use Kostas Sloukas.

In the first quarter, Olympiacos tried to set the tempo, relying on Shaquielle McKissic, however, Ionikos Nikaias took advantage of the gaps in the ‘reds’ defense and closed the first quarter leading 29-25. With Iosif Koloveros having a great evening, both in facilitation as well as in execution, our team succeeded in getting ahead 47-43 at 20’).

The guests put pressure in the defense, ran a partial 15-8 and got ahead 58-55. Weaponizing perimeter shooting, Olympiacos got a 69-64 lead, but Ionikos took advantage of the bad defensive operation of our team, regained control and got the win.

The quarters: 25-29, 47-43, 69-66, 88-93.

The quotes...

The Olympiacos’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, pointed out: “In twenty days, we got to play seven demanding games, some of them went to overtime, others were decided in the last play, they were of great intensity and we had a good opportunity tonight to watch guys that help us a lot at practices, but don’t get minutes in the official games. It was a very useful friendly game. Ionikos played very well, they were well coached, they played zone defense for forty minutes and we had to make some adjustments, which sometimes we did well and others not”.

His comment on the absentees : “Injuries are part of sports. Vezenkov is going to be available for practice. We’ll see tomorrow if he’s in pain or not. Right now, he suffers some discomfort. Papanikolaou is not going to practice. Spanoulis had some discomfort and was out. Sloukas has had too many minutes in the previous games and also McKissic played only during the first nine minutes. Today is Monday and until Friday when we are to play, we are going to have the chance to have four good practice sessions”.

Asked if the coming game against Panathinaikos is a special one, he said: “It’s always a special game in regard to Greek reality, but we can’t have any different approach. Coaches prepare the games depending on the opponent, the question is what you are going to do tactically wise. Of course it’s a critical game. Each game is critical. But as I have said before, we are a rather new team, there is a re-adjustment of roles. The players that have come in this season are protagonists. Each game is important. My opinion is that we are very competitive in all the games. Most of our games are decided within very small margins. We lost the last game in the details. It’s something that really bothers us, but we could have won against Barcelona, we could have won against Armani, against Zalgiris… But we lost and we can’t be crying about it. We need to be looking ahead”.   

Giannoulis Larentzakis stressed: “We are not so much focusing on the result, we mainly see these games as practice. Everyone but Sloukas got to play and I hope the coach has drawn some conclusions, because we have a very critical game this week. Each result counts. We have lost some consecutive games and we absolutely want this win, not only because we play against Panathinaikos and we all know what this game means, but also for the continuance of our course and reaching our goal, that is the playoffs”.