By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus swingman Shaq McKissic was in awe of teammate Sasha Vezenkov after the latter’s outstanding 45-point performance in the blowout win over Bayern Munich.
In awe but still not that much surprised.
“I’m used to seeing Sasha do stuff like this,” McKissic told Eurohoops with a wide smile. “If he wanted to, he could do this in a lot of nights. It just worked out perfectly. I’m sure he will have other opportunies in the upcoming years to catch this record very easily.”
Vezenkov almost didn’t miss en route to registering the third-highest scoring performance ever in EuroLeague history and setting a new club record. He nailed all of his 2-pointers with 10 out of 10 and drained 8 out of 10 threes while going to the line only once (!) during a 3-point play.
“18 for 20 is unbelievable. 10 out of 10 is unbelievable. 8 out of 10 is unbelievable,” McKissic added. “I think this will also give him the confidence and the boost that we’re going to need from him in the second half of the season.”
Vezenkov had 16 points in the first half and climbed at the career-high peak of 33 with 8:13 remaining to put Olympiacos up 86 – 57. The game was more or less over by that moment.
After some minutes, Vezenkov buried a couple more triples to make his points 42. There were 4:05 left on the clock and everyone realized that potentially setting a new all-time EuroLeague scoring record with 51 points is now within reach for the Bulgarian forward.
With 2:22 on the game clock, Vezenkov made a 3-point play but was then substituted by Olympiacos coach Giorgos Bartzokas while being showered by MVP chants from the Red crowd. The record-breaking achievement will wait for another day.
“People always want to see something like this [the record] but sometimes my job is the opposite,” Bartzokas said to EuroLeague TV.”Sometimes, I’m the ‘bad guy’ in this whole affair. But we play in 48 hours and then we have a double-game week with matches in Tuesday and Thursday,” he later commented in the post-game presser.
“Andreas Gantzoulis (Olympiacos’ Strength and Conditioning coach) was about to faint,” joked Olympiacos Sports Director Christos Bafes.
Of course, Vezenkov’s teammates wanted to see him get to at least the 51-point mark and break Fenerbahce Beko forward Nigel Hayes-Davis’ all-time record of 50 points that he set last season vs. ALBA Berlin.
Maybe not Shaq. Or maybe yes.
“I was pushing for it. I didn’t want to take it away from Nigel, ‘l o l’, but I kind of did,” McKissic said to Eurohoops.
“I guess the coaching staff had other plans,” McKissic added.” But we were running made up sets for Sasha. We didn’t know what to run for him to get him wide open looks… It was opportunities where maybe he could’ve had 60, considering plays for other guys. We were wide open but we would’ve been locked in. He got to 31 so late. We didn’t know what was going on. But if we knew sooner, he would’ve had a 60-point night.”
Apart from Vezenkov’s historic night, Olympiacos delivered perhaps their most impressive display on both ends of the floor in the 2024-25 season so far. And they did that despite missing superstar wing Evan Fournier and captain Kostas Papanikolaou due to ilness while starting point guard Thomas Walkup was sidelined with a back problem after playing just in the first five minutes into the game.
McKissic did his part with 16 points, a season-high-tying five assists and a lot of work on the defensive end.
“Crazy, right?” McKissic wondered out loud on his team being unaffected by key absences. “Evan Fournier showed up in the shootaround today (10/1) and I was begging the coaching staff to let him play tonight just so we can be a little bit stronger. You don’t want to go anywhere undermanned especially when you have a guy who thinks he can play but wasn’t allowed to play due to the protocol. I’m sure he was watching us from his house.”
“We played so well so maybe… he should sit out the double-game week,” McKissic said before bursting out laughing. “No, I want Fournier to come back. Badly!”
Bayern Munich arrived at Piraeus being the fourth-highest scoring team in the EuroLeague with 86.5 points per game. Olympiacos forced them to just four points over the first seven minutes and the German side was limited to a season-low-tying 69 points by the end of the game.
Defense was what set the tone for Olympiacos right from the start with the hosts carrying that momentum and intensity from their second half in the victory at Zalgiris Kaunas, as McKissic also acknowledged.
After that game, Zalgiris coach Andrea Trinchieri commented that Olympiacos has this kind of defense that “takes away the joy of playing” from their opponents.
Does McKissic, one of the most prominent defensive players of Olympiacos, agree
“I think so,” McKissic answered. “You can just tell from the reactions of other players against us, when we get stops or when we are physical against them. Like today, I felt like all the Bayern guys were slapping my hand, giving me extra bumps and pushing me. Listen: You have your work cut out for tonight. If you’re going to come to score, it’s not going to be easy. I’m not the referee. Whatever they let us get away with, we’re going to get away with it. And vice versa. I think tonight was pretty clean. We just have one of the best rosters ever assembled in EuroLeague history to be honest.”