Day 17 Euroleague

Barcelona - Olympiacos

* With Spanoulis being out, Olympiacos started the game with Mantzaris and Lojeski as guards. Sfairopoulos tought he could catch two birds with one shot: in defence, his SF, Papanikolaou tried to stopp smaller Rice. Later on, this idea will turn out to be the one winning the game for the greeks. In offence, Lojeski attacked slower Navarro. The help of the other Catalans opened up the paint.

* In that case, Spanoulis being out was also a problem for Barca. Navarro was facing athletic players in defence, and had a difficult time handling them. In the 3rd quarter Bartzokas decided to go with Navarro in order to improve his struggeling offence. It costed Barca many points in defence - it was Olympiacos´ best offensive quarter with 27 points. In the last quarter Bartzokas had enough - he decided not to play with the poor defending Navarro. Olympiacos scored just 13 points in that quarter.

* As I wrote in the last couple of weeks, Olympiacos is very dependent on Spanoulis. Tonight, without him, they could even score 70 points in the whole game. And that is with playing 5 against 4 in the minutes when Navarro played. The players who can create points for themselves did their job in with individual plays. The players who need someone to feed them had rough time. In numbers, it means Birch (and yes, he was not 100% fit, but still) and Young had just made basket from the field combined. And that too, was from a tip off (Olympiacos tried to play post up with Birch for some possessions. It didn´t work, since athletic Birch plays better facing the basket). It means Olympiacos had just 6 asissts in the first hald, and one less in the second.

* Barca was also struggeling to make points (38% from the field!). In the first half, they tried to penetrate after a pick´n´roll or a ball pick. But Olympiacos´aggressive defence was sealing the paint tightly. Lucky for them, they scored 3 pointers with 50% in the first half. In the second half Barca skipped the penetration (beside Rice, which can take the ball to the rim whenever he wants) and pass the ball to the big guys after the screen, since Olympiacos attacked the pick´n´roll. It helped the catalans to get 8 assists in the second half.

* That is not just a philosophical question: when your undisputed leader - Spanoulis - is not on the court, who do you go to in the money time? Olympiacos did not find an answer. In the last minutes, there was no one to take responsibility and finish the game. Luckily for them, young unexperienced Veznekov made a stupid foul and sent the greeks to earn two easy points from the line. Those were the winning points.

* Papanikolaou is a great defender. He took Rice, usually an unstoppable player, as a personal project. Rice was not having an easy night against the big greek. In the last quarter, it looked like as if Rice wanted to proove he is a better player. He made some wrong crucial desicions which costed Barca the game. It is not just his last irresponsible shot - in the last minutes he forced the game, with some unnecessary though shots and a turnover.

#Euroleague #Olympiacos #Barcelona