By Alex Madrid/ info@eurohoops.net
Simply put, Olympiacos has the tie-breaker against Real Madrid and Fenerbahce Dogus, making a huge step towards the home court advantage in the playoffs.
“It is a very important win because first of all, we played against a great team, one of the favorites to go to the Final Four, Real Madrid. It is very important also for our psychology and also for the standings because we have two wins against them”, explained Sfairopoulos who also talked about the game. “I think that our defense was the most important part of the game. With good defense, we controlled the rhythm and didn’t allow Madrid to play their game, with fast breaks and early situations, with a lot of spot-up shooting, as they have good shooters. In general, it was a derby until the end. And I think in the end we played one or two good defenses and won the game. Congratulations to all the players. We continue and it is a long way to go. We have a lot of games until the end of the season and need to continue humble and fighting because anything can happen for good or bad. I want to wish Madrid and my good friend Pablo Laso good luck in the upcoming games.”
Coach Laso added from his side: “First, congratulations to Olympiacos for the win. I think it was a game in which we played three quarters very good – the first, third and fourth. The second was very bad and the difference could have been bigger because we had no control of the pace of the game at that moment. In the second half, we were able to turn it around and even were ahead against a team that we know they play until the final seconds, as they did today. In the end, what probably made you win or lose, when you look at the stats, there is something that punished us a lot, which was 10 missed free throws. Those 10 free throws could be decisive, especially when you lose; when you win, you think about it less. We did many good things to be in the game but in the end, Olympiacos played until the last second and I want to congratulate them. We have to move on after this loss, which happened in the last seconds and makes it more painful.”