Undefeated at the top
In a great game, with Halperin, Gordon and Teodosic excelling at it, Olympiacos needed an extra five minutes to reach victory.
The game remained a derby from the beginning to the end, with Halperin singing off the overtime.
Τhe quarters: 16-15, 32-30, 60-52, 76-76, 87-83.
Per quarter: 16-15, 18-17, 26-20, 16-24, παράταση 11-7.
Οlympiacos (Ivkovic): Papaloukas 9, Gordon 8(2), Spanoulis 2, Bourousis 12, Keselj 2, Pelekanos, Μavrokefalides 9, Halperin 25 (6), Glyniadakis 5, Erceg 3, Teodosic 12(3).
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Τepic, Maric 2, Perperoglou 15(1), Batiste 16, Fotsis 13(1), Sato 2, Tsartsaris, Diamantides 21(3), Vougioukas 2, Calathes 12, Kaimakoglou.
DUSAN IVKOVIC: I believe we got a fair victory at a game much different than the one in OAKA. The fans had been great. Not even a single coin was thrown on the court and the next step would be for the fans of both teams to come to the gym and see who those to better support their teams are. It’s something we cannot decide but I wish that it happens soon.
We won with a pressing defense that forced a very experienced team like Panathinaikos to make 23 turnovers. Nevertheless, despite entering the game with pacing well a set game at every quarter and based on our defense, on how to stop the couple of Diamantides-Batiste, we kept making the same mistakes. We lost concentration and received easy baskets. We stopped playing defense and did not make good choices. We were late in the match up defense and we know we paid the price against Siena, tonight we made 11 three-pointers after a long time, but there was no logic in shooting 33 3-pointers. It is only fair that we are on the top spot. We continue working. We wish Panathinaikos good luck in the Final Four. We have had plenty of time for the team to adjust. Nesterovic got injured on Wednesday, Glyniadakis had been ready, Spanoulis however, had been out practices for 11 days and despite that he helped us all he could.
We have to be learning from everything. From such a team that has offered a lot even on global scale basketball. If we don’t want to go to the overtime, then we shouldn’t have lost the rebounds and we should be also fouling. We did not have the proper reaction. We need better reaction. We’ll learn…
ΖELIMIR OBRADOVIC: I would like to congratulate Olympiacos on the victory. I have to agree with Halperin that this has been a purely basketball atmosphere and I want to congratulate the Olympiacos fans for it. It has been a very tough game offensively, with very bad choices on our part; we received two 3-pointers in a row and lost momentum. We continued trying to get back in the game; we managed so and had the chance to get the victory. As you have witnessed, our choice had been to go to the prorogation. Diamantides missed the free throw on purpose. Olympiacos played better than us in the extra time. The obvious problem for us has been our players’ fatigue.
This was a good lesson for us to focus on what lies ahead. Both in the Final Four and the Greek League, we need to get help from more players. So as to continue in a higher level. We have many days ahead of us to analyze the game, especially in view of the Final Four, where all 12 players should be alert and stop celebrating at the same time.
I’m not looking for excuses. You play Olympiacos, you play for the first place, we could have won. It’s true that we were missing Nicolas who did not practice due to an ankle problem and a virus infection; however, Olympiacos was also missing Nesterovic.
JOTAM HALPERIN: Before I talk about basketball, it’s very important for me and the team to congratulate our fans. It’s my third season in Greece and for the first time such a derby was played in a purely basketball atmosphere, it has been exquisite and I hope we continue this way.
There is always competition between these two teams. It has been a tough and aggressive game. It was very important for us to make the first place and I’m happy we did it. Now we are going to rest and from tomorrow on we’ll continue working.
STRATOS PERPEROGLOU: We have had a chance to win, but this would not be enough for us. We decided to take the game to overtime, but we made a lot of mistakes and playing like that you cannot stand a chance at winning. We are going to play many more times opposite one another, and we definitely are going to need to beat Olympiacos in the Peace and Friendship Stadium to get the Championship. We still have time ahead of us to get ready and I believe we are going to be.