By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
From the moment he got into the locker rooms, he laid down in the physiotherapy bed, unable to understand what went wrong. When CJ Wallace redeemed himself he acknowledged Olympiacos was superior at the game against FC Barcelona Regal, he gave them a bounce of credits and his… trust for the Final!
What was the story for Blaugrana, who came to Istanbul as a favorite for the Final? “I don’t know… For sure, the rosters don’t mean anything. They played great as a team, I mean Spanoulis was great, Dorsey got some big rebounds, their defense was good and they made the shots when they had to. And we didn’t play. They never gave us the lead. We started poorly and it’s never good to start in 8-0. That kind of put us in a hole from the beginning. So, we were kind of playing catch up the hall time and every time we made a run and threaten, they made big shots. You have to give them a lot of credit, coming through and make big shots when the pressure was on them. They did it the hall game. It really sucks, cause you know… Especially, if we thing we were a better team, that’s even harder. But Olympiacos was a better team and you have to give them a bounce of credits. They played a great game and they deserved to play in the final for sure. We had chances, but there’s not much more to say”
Olympiacos had actually 16 days to prepare for the Final Four and FC Barcelona Regal… less than a week. Did that count in favor of the Reds? “If you have 16 days to prepare, for sure you have an advantage over a team that only has only 5 days to prepare. But that’s how things go on in life. And that is not an excuse. We cannot sit here and say “we didn’t have many days to prepare”. They prepared well, but we also prepared well. Our coaches did a perfect job. We knew they are going to run, but they played a pretty good defense, Spanoulis made some big shots, they made big plays, they got big rebounds, offensive rebounds. It was about who wants the ball more and they wanted the ball more”.
And what can we expect for the Final? Is Olympiacos capable to threat CSKA Moscow? “Obviously, they have a chance against CSKA Moscow. They beat us and maybe no one was giving them a chance for our game, but they won, so… they probably prefer that no one give them a chance against CSKA. I wish them the best of luck, they did a great job. For us, it sucks… But that’s the way it goes”.
There is only one trophy left for this season. “Now we have a new struggle and we have to prepare for the payoffs of Liga Endesa. Its being an up and down season, but now we have to win the league. That’s a trophy we have to lift”.