[ad_1]
Five consecutive wins in the EuroLeague is a significant achievement, but Olympiacos still has a long way to go to reach its ceiling. Written by Haris Stavrou.
Olympiakos’ European season didn’t get off to an ideal start, mainly as the Piraeus side came close with away wins over Fenerbahce, Anadolu Efes and Bayern, but went away with defeats in Istanbul and Munich.
After the 10th matchday, the Piraeus have not only straightened the boat, but are now flirting with the top of the ranking. They passed the headquarters of Maccabi Tel Aviv, put a positive sign on the first of their three trips to Belgrade in the space of a month and continue with the next challenge the demanding away game against PAOK (17/11 at 20:15) and the match with Baskonia next Thursday night (21/11) at the Peace and Friendship Stadium.
The question for Piraeus remains the duration. The 40 minutes at Pioneer Hall had many ups and downs, sometimes extreme, but in the end the goal was achieved.
In the first period the offense was on fire, Bartzokas saw 29 points, eight assists without a mistake, good ball circulation and even better execution.
In the second the defense collapsed, the rotation didn’t work, the second unit even found itself at -12, with Dorsey at -6 at +/- in 6:34, McKissick at -10 at 3:26 and Wright at – 13 in 6:02.
Pthe turbo failed again
In the third quarter, the turbo was pressed again on both sides of the floor. A separate 6-26 in seven minutes turned -13 into +7, while in the fourth the match became a rodeo. Even if it was difficult, Olympiacos locked up the result, with Milutinov covering Shaben Lee who got the three-point equalizer and life goes on.
Maccabi’s 18/22 2-pointers in the first half was an extreme performance, but at the end of the night the Israelis dropped to 57.4% as they went 9/25 in the second half.
For the upgraded role of Luka Vildosa, for Fournier – Vezenkov who have the twenty-sara for… breakfast and for the way in which Nikola Milutinov defended, you will read the analysis of Stefanos Makris.
Olympiacos is indeed in a good mood, but it leaves you with the impression that it is playing at 60-70% of its potential. And he has a lot to fix. One of them is his defensive rebounds, which give his opponents a lot of easy points. Even in this streak of five victories, in which the Piraeus have… tariff in attack. 95 in Barcelona, 94 in Panathinaikos, 94 in Villerban, 94 in Maccabi Tel Aviv.
In these five games, however, Olympiacos has conceded 19 points in transition from Real who scored 69 in SEF, 19 points in transition from Barcelona who scored 74 in Faliro, 17 points from Panathinaikos in OAKA and 19 from Maccabi. Tel Aviv at Hala Pioneer.
Bartzokas wants his players to manage fouls properly to limit such situations, but for now, Olympiacos seems to struggle when the opposing defense pressures its guards, puts hands on the ball and looks for the easy basket in the surprise. In a streak of five victories, such a discussion might seem excessive, but surely the Piraeus themselves have set the bar high and in order to continue raising levels, they must improve this weakness.
For now, the talent on the roster is picking up wins at good intervals with Fournier and Vezenkov averaging 18.2 and 20.6 points over the last five games. The class of these two covers everyone and everything and it is no coincidence that many of their opponents characterize them as the two top signings of last summer. When they “solve”, when they shake off the pressure they feel for no reason (perhaps), then Olympiacos will be a real beast.
Little by little, Bartzokas has found formations that work well, there are now healthy Fal and Milutinov, there is enough depth to get the obligations out, especially in the devil’s weeks.
And since we mentioned the devil’s weeks, Olympiacos has five wins in six matches this year. In the first they defeated Armani Milano and lost to Anadolu Efes, in the second they defeated Real and Barcelona, in the third they defeated Villeurbanne and Maccabi.
[ad_2]