By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos completed the EuroLeague double-round “Week of Hell” with two victories after routing Crvena Zvezda 85 – 59 in “Peace and Friendship” arena and improving to a 6-2 record.
The star: Nikola Milutinov was the top performer for Olympiacos, registering a double-double of 13 points plus 12 rebounds for a game-high 22 PIR in less than 23 minutes. Hollis Thompson added 14 points and Ioannis Papapetrou scored 11 points.
Only Taylor Rochestie finished in double figures for the Serbian team, notching 20 points. Most of his teammates struggled to deliver buckets since their opponents were quite aggressive in making stops for most of the game.
Zvezda is now 2-6 and will look to recover next week against Baskonia in Belgrade.
Keeping the distance: The Reds were superior from start to finish but truly gained a considerable advantage after the mid of the third period when they increased their defensive intensity to transform the 56 – 45 lead to 69 – 49.
This 20-point margin was too much for Crvena Zvezda to overcome with seven minutes remaining, and the last stretch became simply a standard procedure. Olympiacos was obviously the much better team, at least on this night, letting its quality do the talking on the floor.