By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
BERLIN — Olympiacos Piraeus forward Alec Peters attributed that horrendous first half that his team had in the EuroLeague semifinal loss to Real Madrid to a lack of aggressiveness and slow reactions on the defensive end.
“It wasn’t really even about tactics or anything like this,” Peters told Eurohoops. “They have players who can make those shots. And when you don’t get in there get to their body quick enough, You let them get that shots off. They are a team that plays with rhythm. They have quality players. And they have been No. 1 the whole season for games like this. We fell victim to it We put the worst half of basketball this season . Not the time you want that to happen.”
Real Madrid went on an early shooting spree with 6 out of 8 triples in the first quarter as they got a 28 – 10 advantage over an Olympiacos squad that could neither keep up with them pull any stops. The Blancos continued raining down buckets – and not only from beyond the arc – to move up 54 – 29 a bit before halftime.
Olympiacos made a valiant comeback effort in the second half but never managed to trim the deficit below 8 points.
“We weren’t tough,” Peters admitted. “We were a step late. Maybe we were just trying to feel out of the game but it’s not what you can do this time. Unfortunately we suffered another loss to them and this one hurts just as bad.”
Peters also couldn’t enjoy one of the finest performances perhaps of his EuroLeague career in general. He produced game-highs 23 points and 10 rebounds against Real, leading the turnaround charge with 20 of his points coming after the break.
“There’s no furthest thing from my mind right now,” Peters said on his individual performance. “We aren’t playing for a championship and unfortunately that’s the harsh reality we have to deal with. We have to play this game Sunday that no one wants to play frankly. That’s the truth. We’re still going to feel the magnitude of this loss. Hopefully we’ll have some gratitude in our minds and put a little bit of joy back to ourselves to flip the script and finish the season strong.”