Kaunas “fell” and κός Olympiacos embraced the advantage!

A “breath” from the home advantage in the playoffs o Olympic!

With their excellent defense in the fourth period and after finding the solutions from the periphery, the “red and whites” won 84-73 the Zalgiris and going up to 16-8 “Locked” the octave.

Five players of his team Bartzoka they had a double-digit number of points. Papanikolaou is the leader with 18 points, with Vezenkov to have 16p. At 13 p.m. the equally good one stopped Martinas much as he had Dorsey. Historic night for him Σλουκαwho had 10 points, but with the 6 assists he shared, overtook Dimitris Diamantidis in 5th place of the passers in the history of the event.

From the whole Zdovtswho retreated to 7-17stood out o Nimbo with 17 points, which is a new career record, while he also had 10 rebounds.

The match

Olympiakos started with Fal, Vezenkov, Papanikolaou, Dorsey and Wokap. With good defenses and the appetizing Papanikolaou, the “red and whites” entered well (4-8), in the first two minutes of the match. However, then they made one mistake behind the other, with Zalgiris finding rhythm and making a series of 7-0 (11-8) for its own lead, in 5 ‘. With a mini outburst of Dorsey, Piraeus temporarily took the lead (11-12), with Ulanovas and Nibo answering for +4 (16-12). In the last two minutes, Bartzokas’ players had bad and misplaced choices, with the hosts closing the first ten minutes at +5 (20-15).

With better defense and control of rebounds at the beginning of the second period, Olympiakos cut the pace of Zalgiris, while with the trio of Vezenkov, Martin and Slouka in the attack, they went ahead (25-26), in 14 ‘. The answer of the Lithuanians came with Lekavitsios and Nibo for their own lead (29-26). However, then Bartzoka’s players tightened defensively, with McKissick in front and Martin finishing the phases on the racket, they made a partial score of 2-8, for +3 (31-34), in 17 ‘. The reaction of Zdovch’s team came with three points for the new overtaking (39-37), with Martin forming at the end the 39-39 of the first half.

Fal’s basket and foul at the beginning of the second half put Olympiakos ahead again (39-42), but the defense did not have the… antidote for Nibos, who did a lot of “damage” and so the two teams were together (50 -50), at 25 ‘. Thus, the game went on until the end of the third period, with both teams playing hard in defense, constantly exchanging baskets and Ulanovas giving the lead (59-58) to the Lithuanians, at the end.

With a lot of good defenses in the fourth period and with Dorsey and Papanikolaou finding solutions from the periphery, Olympiakos went to +7 (59-66), in 32 ‘. Then, Martin and Sloukas “carried” the Piraeus and they went to +8 (64-72), in 35 ‘. Cavanaugh kept the hosts, but Papanikolaou and Vezenkov sent the difference to +10 (69-79), in 37 ‘. In the last minutes, Bartzoka’s players were in complete control with their defense and thus took the victory with the final 73-84.

MVP: By far the leader of Olympiacos was Costas Papanikolaou. “Pap”, apart from being the top scorer with 18 points, was – once again – the most reliable defender of the “red and whites”, putting big shots at the same time. Of course, the also very good Hassan Martin has a significant share of responsibility for the pink leaf.

The number that made the difference: The large concentration of the team of Piraeus was evident to a large extent from the assist-error rate. Bartzoka’s players had 21 final passes, making only 8 errors, with the Lithuanians on the other hand sharing 23 assists, but making 15 errors!

The ten minutes: 20-15, 39-39, 59-58, 73-84

See here the film of the match

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