Olympiacos continues undefeated...
Olympiacos reached 18 victories at 18 games, edging Maroussi at the Peace and Friendship Stadium. The “reds” under Dusan Ivkovic were very good at the first and fourth quarter reaching victory without any obstacles (final 92 – 76).
Dusan Ivkovic gave minutes to all his players and with Kostas Papanikolaou being the best saw his team reaching an easy victory, although he wasn’t totally satisfied from the performance of the “reds”.
The “reds” controlled the game from the beginning and maintained a safety net which was substantially decreased at 28’ (61-550. From that point on however and till the end, the ‘reds” played superbly reaching even a 19 points lead (88-690 at 38’.
Τhe quarters: 24-14, 43-33, 68-55, 92-76.
Per quarter: 24-14, 19-19, 25-22, 24-21
Referees: Foufis, Diamantis, Tarenides.
Οlympiacos (Dusan Ivkovic): Papaloukas 11 (1), Spanoulis 9, Pelekanos 10 (2), Μavrokefalides 10, Glyniadakis 4, Νielsen 3, Papanikolaou 19, Erceg 17, Teodosic 9.
Μaroussi (Vangelis Alexandris): Bojic 7, Noeas, Bagaric 13, Αkepsimaides 6, Huertas 13 (3), Charitopoulos 4, Gagaloudis 18 (2), Clemente 15 (1), Siamantouras, Κalogiannides.
DUSAN IVKOVIC: Maroussi justifiably ranks third and this is a great vindication for their team. I did not like the game, it did not pace the way I would have liked for my team to play which might be reasonable. Maroussi tried, rotating in defense, to pace down the game and we did not react immediately, we did not seem willing to go after each ball. Maybe we lacked ambition in this game. On the other hand, the absence of three guards, Halperin, Keselj and Gordon did not help us maintain a good defensive rhythm. We wanted to rest Nesterovic. I’m not disappointed; however, we could have done better. We continue with our preparing for the Euroleague without any days off.
I gave it a lot of thought and at the game against Ikaros and before Valencia to give Gordon minutes in A1 as well. It would be a big mistake with all these that have happened during last practice sessions. We are going to think about it now, according to how the injuries of Keselj and Halperin are going to evolve. I hope they are going to be ready for the game against Fenerbahce/Ulker, but I don’t think they are going to be.
What happed with Bourousis is totally up to me. It’s something we can up with a gain. Bourousis has had an injured hand. He began pre-season being injured, he has missed most of the practices and this is an issue. He has had a serious metabolism problem. When he received medical treatment on it, he had a severe allergic reaction to it. But it’s not a medical decision. I decide about it, because he hasn’t been playing at the level he can play. I don’t understand what it is you are saying about timing or what the fans think about it. I have a good relationship with Bourousis. There hasn’t been any misconduct on his behalf.
It will take him at least three weeks for the fracture to heal. I will be in contact with the doctors and maybe he reacts sooner. I’m not saying that he will or he will not make the Cup Final. It’s going to take him at least a month though. I’m not satisfied by his performance. That’s the decision and that’s how we are moving on.
Are Peker and Savas great players? I believe that Loukas (i.e. Mavrokefalides) is better than both of them. I try to answer all your questions and you are telling me something like this. You should try to control what you ask a little bit, if you want to keep our good relationship. What should I say? If there is a lock out in the NBA, then Dunkan might also join us… I believe that we are all trying hard. If you think we are not doing something right, then your criticism is going to open up our eyes.
We are having a New Year’s celebration tomorrow, Panagiotis (i.e. Vassilopoulos) is going to be here with us and we are going to talk with him. I’m going to the hospital on Tuesday, when he’s having the surgery. I’m not forgetting about him, not just me as his coach, but Olympiacos as a team.
ΑNDREAS GLYNIADAKIS: We wanted to keep the same tempo throughout the game. Each player that comes on the court should help not to play down the tempo. We managed that quite well. What really interests us is that we maintain our game at Euroleague levels when we play for the Greek league games.
I try to be at a good level from the beginning of the season and to be able to help at any moment the coach asks me to. That’s what I’m going to try to do from now on.
VANGELIS ALEXANDRIS: “Despite the absentees, Olympiacos has the power to keep up the tempo. We tried to confront them, we did it up to a point and we try to adjust to a new way of playing in order to be able and get through the rest of the games. Of course, we are always thinking about the possibility of finding a player to substitute for Kommatos. I’m satisfied, we lasted the most we could in the game and now we move on” Alexandris stressed.
LEFTERIS AKEPSIMAIDES: We came here to fight. We were missing important players, like Kojadinovic who is injured and Kommatos who left the team. Despite all of that, we did pretty well and I would like to congratulate everyone on it. I think we have shown that we deserve to be in the third place.