By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus was far superior from Zalgiris Kaunas in the fourth quarter and won 83 – 74 to claim the first victory in Lithuania since the 2016-2017 season and after six straight losses.
This result improved Olympiacos to 15 – 8 and got the team even closer to securing a place in the playoffs. Zalgiris, which was coming off four wins (also vs. Real Madrid and Barcelona) over the last five games, dropped to 7 – 16.
Kostas Papanikolaou scored a season-high 18 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists while pulling off some major plays on both ends in the decisive final period to lead Olympiacos overall. It was by far his best performance through the season so far.
“We picked up our intensity and made some defensive stops and made some big shots,” Papanikolaou said. “It’s not easy to play here. Zalgiris recently has beaten some very tough teams at home. They are a very good team, so we are happy to get the win. We know that it’s a team founded with strong physicality, so we knew if we wanted to win here we would have to match that physicality. And I believe we did a great job.”
Sasha Vezenkov added 16 points, Hassan Martin posted 13 points plus seven rebounds and Tyler Dorsey contributed 13 points. Kostas Sloukas finished with 10 points and six dimes while passing Dimitris Diamantidis to climb at the fifth position of the all-time assists leaders list.
Sloukas also hit the dagger from downtown to make it 73 – 82 with a minute to play. After a very close game with multiple lead changes, Olympiacos opened the fourth period with an 0-8 run to take a 59 – 66 and never allowed Zalgiris to approach at a shooting distance.
Tyler Cavanaugh hit back-to-back triples and eight out of his 10 points overall in two minutes to try and close the gap for Zalgiris, but Olympiacos had all the responses to retain an advantage of two possessions or more.
Josh Nebo led Zalgiris with 17 points plus 10 rebounds. Lukas Lekavicius notched 16 points plus five assists and Edgaras Ulanovas scored 13 and sent six assists to his teammates.
Zalgiris saw Olympiacos scoring 22 second-chance points while answering with just seven points from offensive rebounds. This element, along with the Reds hitting five triples in the final period, were two of the key factors that decided the outcome.
“Congratulations to Olympiacos for the win,” Zalgiris coach Jure Zdovc said. “We expected a tough game. We fought. I am not disappointed. I expected this kind of game. In the end, we were also a little unlucky. We missed some open shots in the clutch moments. They scored and that was the difference. They’re a good team. They punish you. In some moments, we must be a little smarter – use fouls for example. We tried hard but Olympiacos was the better team.”
“We have the pressure and we need to adjust to it”
Olympiacos coach Giorgos Bartzokas saw his players closing the game strong to get the win against a tricky opponent that has been playing its best basketball recently.
“As always, a game here in Kaunas is a great event with the fans supporting the home team,” Bartzokas said. “And we are a team that always plays with motivation and desire. Zalgiris had great momentum, playing really good right now – having Lauvergne in the rotation and all the guys who really know basketball. They pass the ball and a coach like Jure is doing a great, great job in my opinion. We knew that it would be a complicated game for us, because right now every game for us is a must-win. We are playing against teams that don’t have chances for the playoffs but they still have good players, they still have a good team and coaches. EuroLeague is always like this. We have the pressure. We need to adjust to this – playing with pressure. If we want to have a good spot in the standings, we need to play under pressure. Congratulations to the players, it was really a good win. At the end of the game, I think that we were consistent in our game offensively and defensively. We found a lot of open looks being patient and having creativity. We played for each other – on defense and offense – and we controlled Zalgiris’s offensive game.”