By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Last week against Baskonia Olympiacos suffered its third-worst defeat in post-2000 EuroLeague. Coach Giannis Sfairopoulos and his players needed a big-time reaction.
And Maccabi Tel Aviv was forced into becoming their ideal victim en route to the Reds’ return to form.
With four players scoring in double figures, a balanced Olympiacos routed Maccabi 94 – 64 in Piraeus to notch its 13th victory in 18 games of the EuroLeague regular season.
In the meantime, Maccabi fell to 9 – 9 following perhaps the team’s most grotesque defensive performance in the current campaign. At least according to numbers.
Olympiacos had scored 53 points in the first half with merely two baskets outside the paint and just one 3-pointer, plus an enviable 15 assists/3 turnovers ratio. An incredible output, given that we are talking about the worst team in EuroLeague in that department.
Vassilis Spanoulis (13 points, 7 assists) and Nikola Milutivov (12 points, 7 rebounds) inflicted solid amounts of damage during the first 20 minutes while Jamel McLean had managed 12 points in less than five minutes, before heading to the locker room with a back problem, never to return.
While Maccabi tried to keep up with 40 at the break, it fell apart in the third period, notching only 11 points.
The hosts’ 17 during that stretch improved their lead to 70 – 51 with 10 minutes remaining an advantage which was proven to be more than enough to ultimately grant them a convincing victory, the club’s first at home against the Israelis since 2008.
Pierre Jackson (13 points) and Alex Tyus (10 points) were the only Maccabi players in double-digit scoring numbers.