Olympiacos had a hard time...
Οlympiacos edged PAOK 89-82 for the 7th day of the Greek League and remained at the top of the ranking. The “reds” were unstable at the beginning of the game and in the second half, giving PAOK the chance to challenge the game, but remained calm at the most critical point.
The Thessaloniki team began the game in an impressive fashion and with Rawle Marshall as their main offensive weapon controlled the game during the first 15 minutes. From that point on and till the early stages of the second half, Olympiacos completely dominated the game. The score was 36-35 at 15’ and the first half ended 51-36 in favor of the hosts, while the lead went up to 19 points at 22’ (57-38). At that points the “reds” lost concentration and PAOK returned closing at 69-67 in the beginning of the fourth quarter. But that was as much.
The “reds” tightened their defense and ran in offense reaching ultimately the victory.
Τhe quarters: 25-26, 51-36, 69-64, 89-82
Οlympiacos (Ivkovic): Papaloukas 10, Νesterovic 12, Gordon 4, Spanoulis 13, Bourousis 15(1), Keselj 3(1), Μavrokefalides 9, Halperin 3(1), Glyniadakis 5, Papanikolaou 4, Τeodosic 11(3).
PΑΟΚ (Markopoulos): Μarshall 33(3), ΜcGrath 17(3), Αpostolides, Dedas 1, Dozier 13(1), Papadopoulos 11, Giannakides 2, Kalles, Gechevski 5.
DUSAN IVKOVIC: The most difficult thing for us is playing in an empty gym. Tonight, we only had one good quarter, the second one. I had expected that we would be playing good basketball at the second half, but we let PAOK find rhythm and close in. We are not tired. We don’t last into the game, we do not control the game and we don’t have energy. It’s a situation I’m going to try and change together with the guys. We should improve our performance. We cannot let it like that. We now have to face two decisive games. Not for the first ranking spot of the group, I don’t care about that, but to build a team. We are very far from being a team and basketball is a team game. We need to last into the game. You cannot step on the gas pedal for five minutes and win. Basketball has changed and there are no longer teams that you can beat if you only play well for a short period of time. Mavrokefalides, Papanikolaou and Keselj have lost all defenses at one on one. Everyone is attacking us there. That’s what also happened with Bamberg. My players cannot understand that. It cannot be for Nesterovic, who has won everything in his career, to give 100% or Papaloukas, who has just come back from being injured. From now on, whoever has no will, they will not be playing.
When I went to work for CSKA, the Greeks, Papaloukas and Chatzivrettas had helped us a lot. I then had Monya and Chryapa on the team, who were young and talented guys. I was told I should sign Anthony Parker of Maccabi and it would be easy for CSKA to do it at the time. We could have won the Euroleague with him, two, three times maybe. But I told them we should work with the kids we had. One year later they got drafted by the NBA and did not handle the pressure of it. They changed three or four teams and did nothing. Are my guys waiting for the NBA as well? They listen to their agents and look out for their stats. I know what they’ve been doing because that’s my life. The moment of truth is coming. We are talking professionalism here, not who we like. They are all good guys.
ΑΝDREAS GLYNIADAKIS: We did not play the game we had wanted to. We only played basketball at times and let PAOK make many shots. We continue with our effort and we should last more from now on.
SOULIS MARKOPOULOS: “It’s very bad for two teams to play in an empty court. No one can play like that. No one enjoys it. Olympiacos won the game in six minutes. They built a wide lead and we made many mistakes. We tried in the second half, but it’s difficult to come back against a team like Olympiacos”, Markopoulos stressed.
Marshall is a good player and plays very well. We have little choice in our roster and he can take a lot of shots which makes him feel comfortable.
If we take the two teams out of the League, that is Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, the rest of the teams are about the same style. The two big teams can get victories even when playing mediocre games.
MICHALIS GIANNAKIDES: We had a bad six minutes in the second quarter, but we managed to come back after that, without however managing to get the victory. Life goes on and we are now looking at the game against Roanne.