By Panos Katsiroumpas/ info@eurohoops.net
We’ve reached the moment we’ve all been waiting for. After a sensational Top 16, the time has come to take a look at the big knockout battles that will take 4 out of the 8 teams to the Promise Land, or else, the Final Four in Madrid. Eurohoops, and more specifically, the Magnifying Glass, will try to analyze the 4 pairs, all the key points and the players “barometers” in these four games.
Barcelona against Olympiacos in a huge match up where they are expected to battle it out to the end. The Catalans are a team with a very comprehensive roster in all positions, they are slowly renewing themselves, with young players coming to the surface and like every team that functions in this manner they have good nights and bad nights. They have 8 wins in a row in the Top 16 and they are impatiently expecting the 2012&2012 European champions.
On the other side, Olympiacos once again resembles a “kamikaze” team this year. A tough team, a team that’s hard to beat, that forces you to give everything you’ve got on the court in order for you to get the win. Even though they were 1st in the Top 16 group, the injuries of important players, and some flaws in the details forced them to come finish 3rd and trying to surpass themselves in the Catalans’ lair.
Key points
Even though in this category we usually look at matters that have to do with the game, here we’re going to go to something extracurricular. This is about the situation of the injured Spanoulis and Hunter. We’re talking about Olympiacos’s best offensive player and passer, the player who’s an absolute troublemaker in offense, but also the team’s best post player on defense. Spanoulis hasn’t played for about a month and Hunter has been out for the past few days. Their presence and the shape they will be in is a huge barometer as to the outcome of this series.
Barcelona’s offense. The Catalans probably have the most complete offensive game compared to all the other teams in the tournament. They play good pick-and-rolls, mostly with Marcelinho and they use Tomic as a midrange facilitator after the 1st pass. They try to create from the post a lot with Satoransky, Thomas and of course Tomic, while they also have good movement away from the ball with a lot of screens, blocks and ideal spacing. They have 7 players that score more than 8 points and over 4 players that have more than 2.5 assists per game. If they’re on a good day, it’s hard to stop them.
Olympiacos’s defense. The red-and-whites have the best defense in the Euroleague, they press hard on the ball and are very aggressive on the bigmen’s hedge outs. What Olympiacos – who primarily switch around on defense – will need is great aggressiveness and extremely fast rotations. If they can stop Barcelona from making the first 2 or 3 passes that Olympiacos attacks aggressively they have a chance of forcing their opponents to make errors, bad executions and get many transition game opportunities.
Olympiacos’s pick-and-roll. If there is an aspect of Barcelona’s game that is has weaknesses and looks somewhat soft, that’s the way they deal with pick-and-rolls in defense. This happens mostly because they don’t have a fast bigman in their roster that would be able to play defense with switches or to recover quickly in the paint after a screen. That’s the spot Olympiacos could hit either by getting the ball in the paint or by open shots in the gaps created in the Catalans’ defense.
Dealing with Tomic. We are talking about the most technically gifted bigman in Europe at this moment. Aside from the post game – in which he is amazing – that Barcelona uses him for, they also use him as a playmaker in the paint. In order for Olympiacos to stand a chance and make it difficult for him, they need to make the ball distribution hard for them. They also need to close in on him when he’s in offense too, when he gets the ball after a pick to try and create from top of the paint.
Players barometers
Tomic and Navarro
For the Croatian center we’ve already gone into the varied work he does on the court, while Navarro – by nature and position the Catalan’s captain – can still make the difference. The ways in which he gets unmarked, executes, passes the ball are amazing. Also, with him on the court, the defense is forced to adapt and this creates passageways for unmarked shots by his teammates.
Spanoulis and Printezis
Olympiacos’s captain is of a huge magnitude and when he plays well he lifts his whole team’s performance. The shape he is going to be in after his injury will determine a lot in this series. On the other hand, Printezis offers 2 things that are very important in Olympiacos’s game. Frequent post game from the 4 position and transition game from a bigman. Also, no one can disregard his shooting even if this isn’t his strongest feature.
Prediction
A very strong battle is expected. Barcelona has more quality but Olympiacos is a tougher team. We’ll take a risk and say Olympiacos in 3-2.