A tough win and off to the final!
Olympiacos had a hard time, but overcame the hurdle of Hapoel Jerusalem at the end (94-93) and got the ticket to the final of the 3rd International Basketball Tournament Crete, where on Sunday (22/09, 20.30 LT) will be playing against Unics Kazan.
Vassilis Spanoulis watched the game from the bench, since due to a Euroleague engagement he had missed the last two team practices.
The 'reds' made a numb beginning… Defensive gaps and missed rebounds allowed the Israelis to get ahead in the score (18-12 at 5') and maintain a steady lead up to 14' (33-38). Later on, Olympiacos put pressure in the defense, passed the ball inside the post to Printezis and LeDay and with a partial 13-2, turned the game around and got a +6 lead (46-40 at 38').
With a bucket by Nigel Williams - Goss, our team closed the first half leading 51-45, while thanks to its good perimeter percentages it got a +11 margin (62-51) at the beginning of the 3rd quarter. Nevertheless, back to back turnovers and poor defense allowed the Israelis to come back and led by Owens and Feldeine, they got ahead 72-69 at 28'.
Olympiacos regained the lead with a three by Sas Vezenkov at 32' (81-79), however, Hapoel, mainly relying on its perimeter shooting, got to lead once again at 34' (84-89). For about the next three minutes, the players of David Blatt stopped the opponent from scoring, however, they also couldn't find the way to the basket! Finally, it was Williams - Goss who stopped the offensive drought and a partial 6-1 gave our team the chance to tie the game at 39' (90-90). Printezis scored for the 92-90 with 40'' on the clock and despite Williams - Goss missing both his free throws, the reds succeeded in 'locking' the victory thanks to a superb defensive play by Printezis and a way off target shot by Butler, as well as an impressive dunk by LeDay with 2.7'' on the clock! The final 94-93 was written with a three by Feldeine at the buzzer…
David Blatt commented: "We did not play as good as we had wanted to. We have time to get better in several parts of the game. It's good for the players to win games like that, when you don't play as good as you should have. There are many details we need to focus on. I told my players that I had expected we wouldn't be playing well, because it just wouldn't be normal. There had been many absences in the past days. It's good that we won this way. This game is a result of the way we have been working as a team. We are on the right part and we work together".
On his part, the game protagonist, Zach LeDay, pointed out: "Many players were gone with the National Selections in the previous days and this caused a lot of problems. We need to focus on the next game and play better basketball. Numbers don't mean a thing. We did not play well as a whole. We are going to watch the video and work to improve. I'm here to be getting better each passing day".
The quarters: 26-31, 51-45, 76-77, 94-93
