Lost to Efes and a bad performance
Olympiacos paid the price for a bad first half performance in the game against Anadolu Efes. Our team lost 70-78 and tomorrow (30/9, 16.00) will be playing against the losing team of the CSKA - Unics Kazan game for the 3rd place final of the "Gomelsky Cup".
Taking advantage of the bad defensive performance of the 'reds', the Turkish team set the tempo from the start and quickly 'built' a +10 difference (4-14, at 6'). Our team passed the ball inside the post to Nikola Milutinov and began exhibiting signs of … life in the offense (15-21, at 10'). However, not for long… A pathetic defense and tragic percentages allowed Anadolu Efes to completely dominate the court. It's characteristic of the game that Olympiacos closed the first half with only 37.5% in twos (6/16) and 20% in threes (3/15), when at the same time, Anadolu Efes was scoring in any way possible. The result was that Blatt's players went to the locker rooms trailing by 23 (28-51).
Our team was objectively better in the second half and proof enough is the partial score of the second half (42-24 for Olympiacos). However, it wasn't enough… With full court press and Sasa Vezenkov offering substantial solutions in the attack, Olympiacos began chipping away the difference and had a 9 point game at 35' (59-68). An unsportsmanlike foul by Janis Timma resulted with 4/4 free throws for the Turkish team that sent the difference to +13 once again. However, Blatt's players did not give up… They put pressure in the defense, passed the ball inside the post and came as close as to 7 points (65-72, with 1:35'' to the end). Nevertheless, they continued not being able to score from the perimeter (they had a total of 5/27 threes) and paid for that with losing the game 70-78.
* Olympiacos played without Vassilis Spanoulis and Kostas Papanikolaou who did not travel to Moscow.
The quarters: 15-21, 28-51, 47-63, 70-78.
Οlympiacos (Blatt): Williams-Goss 4, Toliopoulos, Τoupane 3(1), Timma 10(2), Μilutinov 13, Strelnieks 12(1), Vezenkov 12(1), Printezis, Μantzaris 2, Bogris 1, LeDay 13(1).
Αnadolu Efes (Ataman): Larkin 2, Beaubois 14 (2), Balbay, Birsen 2, Motum, Sanli 2, Moerman 15 (3), Pleiss 11 (1), Micic 6, Anderson 7, Dunston 10, Simon 9.
"Let it be a lesson..."
David Blatt commented: "It is obvious that the first half did not go our way. Maybe something like that was useful, so as to recognize what it is we need to do and how we should be playing. We responded well in the second half and even had the chance to completely turn the game and win it. However, we still made some stupid mistakes. Despite all that, these games have this exact goal… To make you focus on what you need to improve and how better you need to be playing to win at this level".
His close associate, Kestutis Kemzura, who represented him in the tournament's Press Conference, pointed out: "I would like to apologize on behalf of coach Blatt, who wasn't able to attend the Press Conference. He has trouble walking due to a lower back problem. We had two totally different halves. Efes dominated the first one we were slow and not focused. We made a lot of mistakes. The positive element is that we reacted in the second half. We tried to fight and did some things on the floor. However, they were not enough. We missed some open shots at the end, but of course the game was lost in the first half. It's a good lesson for us. We cannot be playing a good twenty minutes, or thirty, but forty. Once again, congratulations to Efes. I repeat, it is a good lesson we need to be using. We still have a lot of work to do…"
Sasa Veznekov commented: "It was a really tough game. We did not play defense at all in the first half and made a lot of mistakes with our offensive game. We fought in the second half, played good defense, only received 27 points, however, this wasn't enough to give us the victory. This game needs to become a lesson for us, we need to look ahead and be better in tomorrow's game. Congratulations to Efes, wish them all the best in the season".
The Turkish team coach, Ergin Ataman, commented: "There were two different halves. We played very good basketball in the first half. We had good positioning when defending, we moved the ball well in the offense and found open shots. But we stopped playing our game in the second half and Olympiacos played aggressively. We focused on securing the game and made a lot of turnovers. We only had 1 out of 11 threes in the second half, only 5 assists. We made a lot of mistakes and Olympiacos returned in the game. It's only natural at this level. It's very difficult to be playing at this tempo throughout the game. These are the last games before the beginning of the regular season and I'm very happy from how we played in the first half. Obviously, not so with our second half"
Finally, the French guard, Rodrigue Beaubois, stated: "We played well, we were quite aggressive. We did well defending. In the second half, for some reason we did not get on the floor with the same kind of energy. Olympiacos was more aggressive and it's only obvious that we need to get better and not ever play again the way we played today in the second half".