The first step
Olympiacos made the first step to qualify for the play-offs semi-finals. The “reds” hosted Kolossos Rhodes at the Peace and Friendship Stadium and easily reached victory with an imposing 90-55.
The Rhodes team reacted only in the first quarter, when they were controlling the game, but from the end of the second quarter on and during the second half, Dusan Ivkovic’ players totally dominated the game.
The quarters: 19-18, 44-31, 67-44, 90-55
Per quarter: 19-18, 25-13, 23-13, 23-11
Olympiacos (Ivkovic): Papaloukas 3 (1), Gordon 8 (2), Bourousis 8, Κeselj 9 (3), Pelekanos 3, Μavrokefalides 11, Halperin 7 (1), Glyniadakis 7, Papanikolaou 9 (1), Erceg 15 (8reb), Τeodosic 10 (7as.), Κatsivelis.
Kolossos Rhodes (Sferopoulos): Calathes 6 (6reb), Kafkis 3, Jordan 4, Panos 3, Μanolopoulos 7 (1), Charisis 11, Tsamis 8, Pappas 6, Golemac 7 (1), Georgalis, Danas, Ιvanovic.
The quotes…
DUSAN IVKOVIC: “We had all been aware that this was the first play-offs game and we are happy with the result. The regular season is of no importance, neither are the records. I told my players about what happened to my friend Greg Popovic that saw his team, the Spurs, eliminated by the Grizzlies. We have had many injuries. The last game had been before Easter, there has been a break, but I think we are going to find rhythm. I hope we are ready for the Cup Final”.
ON THE GAME AGAINST KOLOSSOS: «Sferopoulos controlled the game for 17 minutes. We had wanted to play strong and we only scored 4 points at fast break. We hadn’t wanted to play slow. Defense was not an issue. We did not have rhythm in our game. The reason was we were without games. We are going to find rhythm and we’ll be in a better shape after our injured recover”.
ON PRINTEZIS: «I didn’t have to introduce Giorgos to the rest of our players. He’s a new-old Olympiacos player. There had been some unforeseen injuries with Vassilopoulos and Nesterovic. We decided before even Nesterovic got injured to leave Nielsen out and we got Printezis who was a free agent. I need him.
He’s full of energy; he has great reactions, jumps and runs the court and we were in need of something fresh. We don’t expect to have major changes in our game. He had a positive presence at practice. He was up-tempo. We almost had not been able to organize practice. We started out with 16 players, but we have had many injuries».
ON SPANOULIS: «Spanoulis was not ready. He has a serious abduct problem. He will be following daily serious therapy. There had to be a medical report on him, since apart everything else, he’s a National team player. He’s here with us at the gym every day working and on Monday we’ll be able to tell whether he’s continuing with the treatments».
ON NESTEROVIC: «We are waiting for his decision. He had been very important for our game, as well as for the team. He’s an experienced player and an excellent person. There is still some hope».
ZORAN ERCEG: «It has been the first play-offs game. We started out kind of nervous and in the beginning we played the way Kolossos had wanted us to. We had been quite aggressive later on, made some easy baskets in the fast break and managed to turn the game. We continued with the same pace in the second half and reached an easy victory».
GIANNIS SFEROPOULOS: «Olympiacos won absolutely fairly. For us, the important thing is that we are a small town team without great potential and we are in the play-offs for the third year in a row. We want to play good basketball and justify our presence here. We have had good organization both in offense and in defense. We have made some good plays and co-operations, but we made a lot of mistakes when Olympiacos put pressure in the defense and scored easy baskets. It’s important for us to enjoy the game. We need to reduce some dead phases we experienced and go after a more solid game”.
KOSTAS CHARISIS: «We came here to play against an opponent that everyone knows of his potential. I hope we enjoy it the best we can. Each play is new experience. The game was easy for Olympiacos. We are looking at Wednesday».