By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Nothing could wipe that huge, wide smile off Nikola Milutinov‘s face while the Serbian center was walking around the locker rooms of his team following the EuroLeague game against Panathinaikos.
It was only natural. Olympiacos had just grabbed the first victory of the season over its archrival with Milutinov finishing the game with a career-high 41 PIR after scoring 18 points and grabbing 18 rebounds. Thanks to these 18 boards, the 24-year-old big guy set a new franchise-high for the “Reds” in EuroLeague, breaking the record of 17 held by Hall Of Famer Dino Radja from 2000.
“Honestly, I didn’t think about this record or anything. But now I can say I feel happy,” Milutinov told Eurohoops. “Obviously, I feel happy about the 18 rebounds. I never had such a number in my life. Not even when I was a junior. It’s a record of my whole life. I will try to continue like this.”
“But more than anything, I feel happy because I helped the team in the right way. And we won,” Milutinov mentioned.
Olympiacos was up throughout the whole game after the 0 – 2 entrance of Panathinaikos. The Reds were firing on all cylinders on defense right from the start and when they began combining the stops they made with transition points and valuable buckets from long range, they established a double-digit lead that was never below 13 points and went over 20 in the fourth quarter.
Milutinov himself transformed the area inside the paint into his own personal playground. He punished Panathinaikos‘ switching defense by dunking the ball and finishing plays at will and didn’t allow anyone to come even close to the ball when he was soaring to collect it after a missed shot.
“We started the game with a right approach. In the right way,” Milutinov said to Eurohoops. “We didn’t have many ups and downs. Just some minor ones because you know, the opponent is always playing basketball too. It’s not only us. But I think we controlled the game for 40 minutes. We were really aggressive and had a correct mindset. We knew how important was it to do it for us and the fans.”
There were many different factors that poured extra fuel into the tanks of Olympiacos vs. Panathinaikos.
There was the upset to Turkish side Darussafaka Tekfen, a loss that arrived after a rather horrid performance by David Blatt’s players. Olympiacos was also 0-2 to Panathinaikos this season following a defeat for EuroLeague and another in the Greek League.
Thus, Milutinov and his teammates entered the game highly determined and fired up with an energy that was flowing from the fans, to the players on the bench, then the ones on the floor and then back again like a ley-line.
“It was everything. And the loss to Darussafaka where we played perhaps our worst game this season. We were really really bad. OK, it happens in a long season, but I hope it won’t happen again,” Milutinov said to Eurohoops.
“But above all, it was just a matter of big-big desire to win this one,” Milutinov added. “The fans’ support. Also, our bench was very ‘alive’. Everybody was hungry to win this game. That’s why we didn’t stop playing… not even for one second.”
“The fans really helped us today. I know I might be getting boring because I mentioned them before, but they truly did,” Milutinov said.
Milutinov was indeed way excited with the atmosphere that Olympiacos fans created in the first sold-out game of the season for his team. And in the mood for a promise.
“If our fans come again like they did tonight, maybe I’ll have another 18-rebound game.”