“Blaze” Olympiacos fell… easily in Belgrade

As if he didn’t… he went to Belgrade Olympic!

With many mistakes (15) and a terrible miss outside of 6.75m. (3/20) the “red and white” did not put up much resistance to They were partisansknowing defeat 90-75.

Piraeus remain at the top with a record now at 21-9while on the other hand the Serbs were “burning” for the victory, in order to stay on track for the playoffs, climbing to the 17-13.

The only one who stood out from the Piraeus team, which did not have him George Bartzokas at the end of the counter, was o McKissick with 21 points. Another 13p. Fal had. Very average appearance from him Vezenkov with just 6p., but also from Slukawho had 8 points, 3 assists and 7 fouls!

The leader of Partizan was Nanali with 19 points, while others 17p. Pander had. Another 10p. added the Papapetrou.

The match

Olympiacos started with Fal, Vezenkov, Papanikolaou, Kanan and Walkap. The tempo was very high early on with Madar making it 4-0 for Partizan and the “red and whites” responding with Papanikolaou and Walkup for their own lead (7-8), in the 3rd minute. Afterwards, Piraeus relied more on Fal offensively, but the hosts were “hot” outside the 6.75m, as a result of which they went ahead and went +3 (15-12), at 5′. Olympiacos reacted with defenses and baskets in the open court with Walkup, to go ahead again (17-18), in the 7th minute. However, in the last three minutes, the guests made mistakes and with “hot” Nanali, Partizan closed the first period at +5 (27-22).

Mistakes and failure cost Olympiakos at the beginning of the second quarter as well, with Partizan running on the floor and making individual scores of 7-2, for +10 (34-24), at 12′. The “red and whites” responded with shots from McKissick, but their terrible miss outside the 6.75m. (0/12tr.) and on the other hand, the accuracy of the hosts from the perimeter sent the difference to +14 (40-26), at 15′. McKissick still kept the Piraeus offensive, however the many mistakes (mainly by Sluka) and Pander’s 3-pointers pushed the difference even to +16 (48-32), at 19′. With time remaining, a layup by Sluka made it 48-34 at halftime.

With much more tension in the defense, Olympiacos entered the second half and, finding baskets in the open court with Vezenkov, Kanan and Walkap, made individual scores of 2-12 for -4 (50-46), until 25′. Then, Partizan reacted with Exum and Lessor who made a 6-0 run, for +10 (56-46), in the 27th minute. In the remaining time, Slukas carried the Piraeus offensively, however the hosts closed the third period at +8 (60-52).

With McKissic very “hot” offensively, Olympiacos was holding on to the match (65-58) at the beginning of the fourth period. However, the American was alone, with Exum starting Partisan’s counterattack initially for +13 (73-60), in the 33rd minute. The “red and whites” blocked aggressively again, with Papapetrou and Pander entering the equation and the difference slipping to +16 (79-63), in the 35th minute. From that point on, the home team was in control, with the Piraeus team temporarily reducing the lead (83-73) and ultimately losing by a score of 90-75.

The quarters: 27-22, 48-34, 60-52, 90-75

See the match statistics here

Watch the film of the match here