Olympiacos bested Monaco 87-83 in the 3^rdgame for the Euroleague playoffs and regained the home court advantage! On Friday (29/04) our team will fighting for yet another win in Monte Carlo that will send the ‘reds’ directly to the final four!

The ‘reds’ tried to take advantage of Moustapha Fall’s dominance of the post (14-18 at 7’). However, turnovers and missed free throws, allowed the hosts to attack back and get ahead 23-19 at 10’. All the more, one minute earlier the imposing French center had made his second foul, which forced Giorgos Bartzokas to pull him back in the bench.

With Mike James spearheading the offense, Monaco remained in the driver’s seat up until 13’ (28-24). But Olympiacos was quick to react… They put pressure in the defense (with Jean-Charles doing a very good job in the post), found solutions with Vezenkov and Walkup and regained the lead (33-38 at 17’). With a partial 8-2 score, the hosts once again got to lead, this time 41-40, but a personal crescendo by Kostas Sloukas allowed our team to close the first half at +4 (41-45).

Two back to back threes by Dorsey and Papanikolaou brought Olympiacos to +8 for the first time (43-51), this difference was though lost - due to bad decisions and defensive mishaps – in just a minute (51-51)! Bartzokas players nevertheless made an immediate come back! Pressing defense and offensive pluralism ‘translated’ in a partial 5-20 streak (+15, 56-71 at 29’).

With a bucket by Sloukas the score became 58-73 at 31’ and from there on the ‘reds’ suffered an offensive ‘black out’ up until 35’, when Monaco had closed in at 4p. (69-73). And they did not stop there… Obradovic’ players had found rhythm and with a three by Lee they got ahead 80-79 and with 1:24’’ on the clock! Defense and cold blood from the free throw line gave our team a 5 point margin (80-85). Bacon forced a two point game (83-85 with 6.2” still on the clock), but Sloukas made both of his free throws and sealed the big win!

The quarters: 23-19, 41-45, 58-71, 83-87.