Far from his true potential
Olympiacos was defeated in Istanbul by Anadolu Efes (76-53), for the 25th round of the Euroleague.
The ‘reds’ made an ideal beginning in the game. With solid defense, speed, good ball movement, good shooting from the perimeter (4/6 threes), rebounding advantage (5-11) and with Giannoulis Larentzakis and Shaquielle McKissic spearheading the offense, they closed the first quarter leading by 15 (11-26).
However, all that they painstakingly got to build, they brought it down in the following eight minutes. With Sloukas, Larentzakis and Vezenkov in the bench, Olympiacos dealt with a severe offensive problem. On the contrary, the Turkish team, mainly relying on Larkin and Beaubois, turned the game around, ran a partial 26-4 (37-30 at 18’), while Dunston wrote the half time score (43-34), giving his team a +9 lead.
The outlook did not change into the 3rd quarter… The ‘reds’ slightly improved their defensive operations, however, they continued facing with enormous problems with their offense, which Efes took advantage of and widened its leading margin (15p., 58-43 at 30’).
With a 5-0 streak, the hosts skyrocketed the difference to +20 (63-43 at 32’) and practically sealed victory, since despite somewhat taking the tempo down later on, the Olympiacos of back to back turnovers and bad decisions was not ever able to make a come back.
The quarters: 11-26, 43-34, 58-43, 76-53.
"We inexplicably collapsed"
The coach of Olympiacos, Giorgos Bartzokas, commented after the game: “Congratulations to Efes on their good performance and the win. All their players have come back to action and they now have a really deep and talented roster. We showed two different faces, one in the first quarter, when we executed exactly according to plan on both ends of the court, moved the ball, played as a team and got a +15 lead. But, according to my opinion and without any explanation, we collapsed in the second quarter, stopped playing together, we were playing selfishly and at the same time, we were not executing our defensive plan. With all of the above, we allowed Efes to find confidence, especially their guards, who are really very good scorers and facilitators.. In three quarters we made 17 -19 turnovers from a total of 22 in the game. It’s a huge number if you want to be competitive in this court. First of all, when you play against Efes, you need to protect the ball, be patient, shoot with good percentages, stick to your plan and control your emotions. It was obvious that we did not control our emotions after the second quarter”.