By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Last Friday (13/12), Olympiacos Piraeus superstar Evan Fournier had his worst performance in 2024-25 with 1 out of 10 shots and a season-low two points in an away loss at Crvena Zvezda.
Some days later, Fournier flipped the script completely by putting on arguably his top all-around display with the Olympiacos jersey. The French veteran had 20 points, seven assists and five rebounds in 26:57 while providing some tremendous defensive helps to help his team grab the bounce-back win over Virtus Bologna Wednesday (18/12) after two straight EuroLeague losses.
“That was definitely my worst game, back in Belgrade. I played like shit,” Fournier admitted to Eurohoops. “I wanted to play better tonight. But mostly, I wanted to help the team win. That was the most important and I’m happy we did that.”
Olympiacos got the victory over Virtus but not before a fair share of ups and downs in their performance. The Reds took off early to get a 25 – 7 lead eight minutes into the game before Virtus completely erased that margin to go up in the score 43 – 46 at halftime.
“Lack of execution,” Fournier said on Olympiacos blowing their lead. “You take two-three possessions off. You let them build momentum. And instead of having them playing on their heels, they are attacking you. Baskeball is a quick game. There’s a lot of talent. The pace is quicker than ever.”
“You can’t f–k around with the game, excuse my language,” Fournier frankly added. “You can’t play around with the game. You have to execute for 40 minutes.”
Fournier spurred the comeback for Olympiacos with a basket early in the second half. He then had consecutive triples to cap a 17 – 2 rection by the hosts.
Despite Virtus’ efforts, Fournier and his teammats wouldn’t lose their advantage this time to beat their opponents 87 – 77.
“Just trying to make plays to win,” Fournier mentioned. His team-high-tying +30 in +/- accurately reflected his impact on the result, since he was involved in several important plays on both ends of the floor.
After the first victory following back-to-back defeats, Fournier explained what Olympiacos needs to do to build a new streak in the EuroLeague. The Greek powerhouse had a 6 – 0 stretch in October and November games but then went 1-3 before the win over Virtus that has now put them at 10 – 6 overall.
“Balance of play,” Fournier mentioned. “We have moments where we look amazing and some moments where we look shitty. You aren’t going to play perfect for 40 minutes. Sometimes you play good but you don’t make shots. You can live with that. But we need to execute better. Also, night in and night out we need to be the most physical team. Sometimes it feels like when we don’t make shots and we lose our rhythm a little bit, we let that affect our hustle. We can’t have that.”