By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Khimki Moscow star guard Alexey Shved couldn’t really enjoy one of his most prolific offensive displays ever in EuroLeague that much.
Shved scored a career-high-tying 36 points (on a EuroLeague all-time high 21 3-point attempts) during the Round 14 game of Khimki against Olympiacos Piraeus on the road. His performance – one that included nine assists – though, wasn’t accompanied by a win for the Russian team that fell to the Reds in overtime.
“Better to win than score 36 points,” Shved told Eurohoops. “The result is more important than this one. The result is no. 1”. He had dropped 19 points in 10 minutes to lead his team to a comeback from down 12 towards taking a nine-point advantage, 83 – 92.
With 69 seconds to go in the regulation, Khimki appeared to have victory in their grasp when Sergey Karasev put his team up 87 – 96 from the free-throw line. Yet just a few possessions and three straight 3-pointers by Olympiacos later, the game was tied at 96.
“They made some 3-point shots. But we had crazy turnovers. Just bad decisions. We need to play with patience. We can’t force things,” Shved said. The Russian player had a chance to win the match for Khimki but Brandon Paul’s defense forced him to commit a traveling violation when he pulled for a 3-pointer with 1.3 to play.
“They pressured me. And you can’t play 40-45 minutes the same way,” Shved said.
The extra period was a 13-2 monologue by Olympiacos.
“We must’ve won this before overtime,” Shved commented. “We spent too much energy in the last five minutes. They played good. We’ll see next time.”
The one who forced the extra period for Olympiacos was Vassilis Spanoulis with one of his classic sidestep 3-point jumpers. Despite the loss of his team, Shved appreciated having another matchup with the three-time EuroLeague champion and Final Four MVP.
“He’s a great player. A legend in EuroLeague. I like him. I’ve known him for a long time. I’m always happy to see him and play against him,” Shved said.