Written on 17 October 2023. Posted in Games.

A loss in Milan

Olympiacos lost in Milan to Armani 65-53, for the 3^rd round of the Euroleague and is now exclusively focusing on the Thursday game at the SEF vs Partizan (19/10, 20.15 CET).

Defenses were dominating in the first quarter, which closed with the hosts at +2 (19-17). Following a 5-0 partial, the Italians got a 7p. lead for the first time in the game (24-17 a t12’), but Olympiacos had an immediate reaction. They put pressure in the back court and with two back to back threes by Isaiah Canaan and Thomas Walkup, they closed in to one point (26-25) at 17’.

At that point, Canaan (who had already been charged with a technical foul during the first minutes of the game), was charged with a foul and a second technical, which resulted in his ejection from the game.

Despite the shock – given the fact that Giorgos Bartzokas did not have Nigel Williams-Goss available and the guards were already short-numbered – the ‘red & whites’ tried even harder and with Nikola Milutinov and Alec Peters carrying the team, got to close the first half leading by one (31-32).

The outlook remained practically the same in the second half. Armani tried to pass the ball to Mirotic and succeeded in getting a 4p. lead (38-34), but despite their low scoring production and the many theoretically easy missed buckets, Olympiacos remained alive, mainly thanks to his defense (44-41 at 30’) and even got to lead at 31’ following a dunk by Moustapha Fall (44-45).

However, the team suffered an offensive ‘black out’ afterwards. They remained scoreless for about 6 minutes, with Armani took full advantage of and running a partial 9-0, they got a +8 lead (53-45) at 37’ practically ending the game. The Italians got to also further the distance striking from the three point line (60-47), when at the same time our team seemed uncapable of finding offensive solutions.

It’s also worthnoting, that Giannoulis Larentzakis also left the game at 35’ after committing his 5^th foul.