By Antonis Stroggylakis/ astroggylakis@eurohoops.net
It felt like a rough case of deja vu for Fenerbahce Beko.
Back in January, Fenerbahce suffered its biggest home loss in the EuroLeague regular season when Olympiacos Piraeus hit them hard 93 – 73 in Ulker arena. One of the main perpetrators from the Reds’ side was Isaiah Canaan thanks to his 6-9 threes and 20 points.
Last night, a script with many similarities was unfolded in Peace and Friendship stadium and during Game 1 of the EuroLeague playoffs between Olympiacos and Fenerbahce. After a close battle for both teams and a quiet personal first half, Canaan turned his inner beast mode on with 5-6 triples over the last 6:40 minutes of the third period to completely flip the switch in favor of his team and lay the foundations for a 79 – 68 win. His final tally was 18 points on 6-7 from the perimeter.
“That’s what really changed the game,” Fenerbahce center Johnathan Motley told Eurohoops after posting team-highs 15 points and seven rebounds. “He’s a good player man, a good shooter. We all know that.”
“For sure,” Dyshawn Pierre agreed. He was one of the standout performers from the Turkish side with 13 points, five assists and four rebounds. “This is one great shooter and we have to be more focused than that against him and their other guys.”
Fenerbahce players were aware of what Canaan is capable of also from past experience but didn’t pay enough attention to him, even after he began heating up. While his first bucket in the second half was an off-the-dribble attempt from an 8-meter distance, the rest were results of passes from his teammates as he waited locked and loaded in the corners in either transition or 5 VS 5 situations.
And the more Canaan’s temperature was rising, the more the rest of Olympiacos players were visibly seeking him on the floor. “I give credit to all my teammates for finding me,” he said after the game. “They know all I got to do is see one go through and anything can happen. For them to keep looking for me after I made a couple, I give them credit.”
“It was a mistake of losing concentration,” Fener coach Dimitris Itoudis said in the post-game presser regarding Olympiacos‘ – and Canaan’s mostly – open looks. “Losing the connection between the creator and the spot shooters. This was a big thing for them coming off the break.”
Prior to last night, Canaan was 6-35 in EuroLeaguee following the above-mentioned victory at Fenerbahce. That’s right, he had as many 3-pointers over 11 games as he had in the win at Istanbul and the one in Game 1 of the quarterfinals.
Was it possible that Fenerbahce underestimated Canaan a bit while channeling its defensive focus’ elsewhere? That they didn’t take his potential impact much into consideration? “No,” Motley said. “We respect everybody on that team. It was just some mistakes we made. And credit to them. They were driving in, moving the ball, and then distributing it around, finding the open man. That was also part of the mistakes we made and we’ll figure that out.”
Pierre admitted that the central aspect of Fener‘s plan was eliminating’s Olympiacos’ actions when it comes to the team’s brilliant passing game and off-the-ball movement that often produce lethal results. EuroLeague mega-favorite Sasha Vezenkov has been thriving on that kind throughout the season and was productive also in the Game 1 win with 19 points, along with six rebounds.
“We definitely focused on backdoor cuts,” Pierre said. “But there are a lot of good players on that team. They have a lot of talent and they are together for a long time. Obviously, it was Canaan who made a lot of threes today. He’s a great shooter. Perimeter defense was a bit thing tonight. We can’t really do much about that now, we have to focus on the next game. Keep the same intensity that we had in the first half especially.”
While Itoudis was satisfied with how Fener performed defensively in the first 20 minutes, he had many complaints regarding his players’ behavior while Olympiacos was doing heavy damage from afar.
Olympiacos finished with a new playoffs club record 16 3-pointers on 29 attempts. It wasn’t just Canaan but his own 3-point rampage in the third quarter was the most decisive one.
“The momentum was when Canaan hit consecutive 3-pointers,” Itoudis mentioned in his post-game flash interview. “Olympiacos found five open looks in a row if I’m not mistaken. We overhelped with no reasons. That wasn’t our strategy. It gave them a boost.”
In one of those instances that Itoudis cited, Olympiacos had its two best shooters on the floor open almost at the same time. Thomas Walkup drove to basket, attracting the attention of Fenerbahce’s defense before kicking the ball out to Vezenkov. It was already money in the bank for the star forward who could’ve easily hit another triple but knew that the man who just must take it was his hot-handed teammate next to him at the corner. He held the ball just enough to force Canaan’s player (Nick Calathes) move toward him and sent the pass to the guard who banked in his sixth 3-pointer as Olympiacos closed the period with the biggest lead in the game at this point, 63 – 51.
It was a sequence that perfectly encapsulated what the Olympiacos’ widely acclaimed offensive game has been about throughout the season.