Easily...
The “reds” played without Milos Teodosic (has a lower back problem), imposed the rhythm from the beginning and despite a bad third quarter reached their 19th victory in the league without any problems remaining undefeated and at the top ranking spot.
Τhe quarters: 28-14, 48-28, 62-50, 79-61
Οlympiacos (Ivkovic): Papaloukas 7, Νesterovic 7, Gordon 9, Spanoulis 11(2), Pelekanos 8(2), Mavrokefalides 8, Halperin 8, Glyniadakis 13, Νielsen 6, Papanikolaou 2, Erceg, Katsivelis.
Panellinios (Skourtopoulos): Ksanthopoulos 11(1), Papamakarios, Bailey 6, Kalaitzis, Crabbenhoft 2, Smith 6(1), Κarathanassis 4, Sklavos 6, Scepanovic 5(1), Francis 21.
DUSAN IVKOVIC: We played against a team that has many experienced players on their roster, knows how to control the rhythm and after Istanbul it was I that wanted to have a simple and consistent control. We hadn’t had that. We were somehow good in the first quarter. We made a 7-0 streak in the second, played poorly in the third and at the end, the proportion between turnovers and assists has not been positive. The thing is that players are not machines. Teodosic has not practiced after Istanbul, Spanoulis joined the team without any practicing and we could not react. The one player that could always react to situations has been Glyniadakis in the beginning, but he probably felt the 13 points he scored had been enough and the other one has been Gordon. We have a game against Zalgiris ahead of us and then another big game against Panathinaikos.
You should also help, the best you can, to change something. In the beginning of the season, everyone promised they would leave the court at the sight of the first object thrown in and we have forgotten all about it. Many of you had been in Valencia. They applauded for us and despite losing a very important game for them; they waited for us outside to get autographs. Games should be celebrated. From the moment young kids come to the games, maybe we can win some new fans as well. Of course, I would also like for our fans to be by our side, but it’s not our decision to make.
I had also expected for the fans to come, the game time is a good one. Probably the fans like football better, probably Greece is a football country, I can’t explain it any other way.
JOTAM HALPERIN: We have had many ups and downs. Especially in the third quarter, we did not play good basketball, against Panellinios that fought a very aggressive game. The good thing is that we won and we have a very important week ahead of us with the game against Zalgiris and the Cup Final. From tomorrow on, we have to work and correct our mistakes.
My injury has not been that serious, I feel well, and I will work hard. There are still seven days left to the Final to work and get into good shape.
I was very happy. It has been a great victory not only for the first place, but also because the team showed her metal. It has been one of those results that show the difference between a good team and a very good team. We all want to play 40 minutes, it’s not possible though, and it’s even harder to watch the game on TV, but all those are now behind us.
THANASSIS SKOURTOPOULOS: We work towards the set goals this season. We don’t have the ability to play all the games hard. We are interested in the game against Alba so that we finish with the EuroCup in a positive fashion and the games against PAOK and Maroussi. We want to incorporate Scepanovic, we’ll work and I would simply expect to be a little more cautious at the end and that the final score had been closer.
We don’t have such a full roster, so that to cope with two tournaments. Nevertheless, I now believe that we are in a good shape, we have a good schedule to the end of the season and we are going to do something good.
GIANNIS KARATHANASSIS: It has been a tough game for us. We play against one the best teams in Europe, and we tried to give out best. We aim at the following games when we also have to get the results we need.