By Panos Katsiroumpas/ info@eurohoops.net
The Magnifying Glass analyzes the big game in Milano and the big win of Olympiacos that keeps the reds in the 1st place of their Top 16 Group.
Two different styles of Basketball met in the Mediolanum Forum. The quick and impulsive with many isolations game of Milano against the basketball of co-operations, automations and team plays that Olympiacos represents. In the end the team that has the most stable values in the game won keeping Olympiacos in the 1st place of their Top 16 group.
One of the stable values of Olympiacos is Spanoulis. He was huge also in Milan scoring huge baskets every time that Olimpia was trying to force a comeback. The captain of Olympiacos was also very effective in terms of creation.
Even though Olimpia was trying to put him into pressure with the hedge outs and the double teams, Spanoulis always made the correct choice. Banchi tried everything. He send double teams and helps even in plays that Spanoulis was not screened in the perimeter and in some plays used zone. In every defensive plan Spanoulis had an answer finishing the game with 14 points and 8 assists.
The Reds from Greece also had in their mind to run whenever that was possible. They managed to score many points in transition mostly in the 1st quarter and also in the last minutes of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th quarter. Printezis was the player that finished the majority of transition plays, and this gives another aspect of his talent added to his great post-game with his quick moves.
Olympiacos also found many points from their centers with their great finishes after pick ‘n roll. Moreover this was the 1st game this year that we saw many times one of the centers of Olympiacos trying to create plays and score from the post. Hunter finished some plays with post-up and offered extra help and variety in the offensive game of Olympiacos. Both Hunter and Dunston combined for 26 points and 12 rebounds scoring with high percentages.
The only period of the game that Milano created problems to Olympiacos was in the 2nd quarter with the presence of Ragland. The American guard put some logic in the game of the Italian team, moving the ball well and penetrating to the basket scoring some easy points in part of the game where Olympiacos didn’t have depth in their defense.
After the 2nd period it was all isolations for Olimpia Milano. Brooks and Gentile scored a lot in plays where they took advantage not only on the miss matches after the switches in Olympiacos defense but also from the absence of the best individual defender of Olympiacos who was sitting on the bench with foul trouble. Of course we talk about Tremmell Darden.
The way that Milano plays cannot be effective for 40 minutes. In the 4th quarter Gentile and Brooks were exhausted and the defense of Olympiacos was more effective forcing them to make bad decisions and take bad shots. For a strange reason and after his best game with the red shirt, Samardo Samuels was totally out of the offensive game of the Italian Champions. He finished the game with 4 points and only 2 shots.
The difference in quality of creations was the aspect that finally mattered. Olympiacos finished the game with 22 assists and at the same time Milano had only 11. This is the basic difference and the main reason that Olympiacos won the game.