By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
In the game vs CSKA Moscow, Olympiacos didn’t only have to face the top-seeded team in EuroLeague, but also needed to fight like never before this season, in order to overcome the major absences of its starting power forward (Giorgos Printezis) and center (Nikola Milutinov).
The Reds put great amounts of hustle on the floor of “Peace and Friendship” arena and beat, against all odds perhaps, their opponents 88 – 86 to climb to the top of the standings with a 10 – 3 record.
It all happened via the huge efforts of Jamel McLean who scored a season-high 26 points and grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds for 30 in PIR but also thanks to a game-changing smallball squad that Giannis Sfairopoulos implemented for the most part of the fourth period.
With Olympiacos down 60 – 68 near the end of the third quarter, Ioannis Papapetrou assumed the role of a “5” on the court and his team became faster and more agile on both ends. This allowed the hosts to achieve an impressive 19-4 partial score in order to transform a 60 – 68 deficit to a 79 – 72 in the mid of the fourth period.
CSKA, that also missed players such as Andrei Vorontsevich. Leo Westermann and Othello Hunter, had a quick response via its top player, Sergio Rodriguez (23 points) but Oly remained up. Vassilis Spanoulis (15 points, 6 assists), capped his best performance in the season so far, by making it a two-possession affair for Olympiacos, 86 – 81 in the last minute with one of his trademark lay-ups but Nando De Colo (18 points) wasn’t ready to just give up, hitting a downtown bucket with only seconds remaining.
Although Olympiacos didn’t manage to seal the deal from the line, it kept a narrow lead. Will Clyburn’s (13 points, 10 rebounds) missed a 3-point attempt from midcourt at the buzzer and CSKA fell to 10 – 3 and the second place in the table.