2019-20Regular SeasonRound 23
Zalgiris Kaunas 94
Olympiacos Piraeus 69
February 04, 2020 CET: 19:00
Local time: 20:00 ZALGIRIO ARENA

Zalgiris shoots its way past Olympiacos

Zalgiris Kaunas tied its largest win of the season by beating visiting Olympiacos Pireaus 94-69 on Tuesday night at a sold-out Zalgirio Arena. It was the third consecutive win and fourth in the last five games for Zalgiris, which improved to 9-13 on the season, the same record as Olympiacos. Zalgiris took control early and never relinquished it thanks to tying a club record with 14 three-pointers and committing just 8 turnovers to turn this affair into a comfortable victory. Zalgiris also earned the head-to-head tiebreak advantage over Olympiacos, overcoming a 9-point loss from earlier this season. Arturas Milaknis paced the winners with 19 points. Thomas Walkup, K.C. Rivers and Martinas Geben scored 12 apiece, while Edgaras Ulanovas and Lukas Lekavicius each had 11 points in the victory. For the visitors, Sasha Vezenkov scored 15 and Augustine Rubit had 10.

Vassilis Spanoulis scored 5 early points, including a triple, but Zalgiris scored on five of its first six possessions and a triple by Milaknis and a fastbreak basket from Ulanovas capped a 9-0 run to make it 13-7. Kostas Papanikolaou and Rubit hit back-to-back from downtown to close within 18-17, but the hosts had a 9-0 run bridging the first and second quarters with a triple from Rivers and a put-back dunk from Zach LeDay to lead 27-17. Vezenkov knocked down a three-pointer for the Reds, but Lekavicius fueled a 7-0 run with a pair of close-range baskets before Rivers's three made it 34-20. The visitors got behind Vezenkov and Taylor Rochestie who combined for 11 points the rest of the half, helping cut it to 46-37 at halftime.

After the break, Walkup and Milaknis hit from downtown to make it 54-41. Each player scored from downtown once more before Geben scored inside as Zalgiris put together a 12-0 run to extend the margin to 69-45 late in the third quarter. Nikola Milutinov scored on three consecutive possessions in the fourth, followed by baskets from Wade Baldwin IV and Vezenkov to cut within 77-62. However, after a timeout, Ulanovas and Milaknis hit back-to-back triples as the hosts needed less than 2 minutes to extend the margin to 85-62 and Zalgiris cruised the rest of the way.

Key runs

Zalgiris assumed control with a 16-3 run bridging the first and second quarters to open a 34-20 advantage midway through the second quarter. The hosts put Olympiacos away with a 12-0 third-quarter run to make it 69-45.

Record shooting

Zalgiris tied the club record with 14 three-pointers, which was the seventh time this century and second time this season that Zalgiris knocked down as many threes. The team did it on 22 attempts, good for 63.6% which tied for the club's third-best this century.

Turnover margin

Zalgiris took great care of the ball, committing just 1 turnover in the first half, and finishing with only 8 for the game. Meanwhile, Olympiacos had 17 turnovers for the night.

Recent history

Zalgiris has now won eight of the last 10 head-to-head games against Olympiacos, including the last five on its home floor.

Next up

Both teams will be in action again in 48 hours. Zalgiris travels to face league-leading Anadolu Efes Istanbul, while Olympiacos will be at home against defending champion CSKA Moscow.

Arturas Milaknis - Zalgiris Kaunas - EB19
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: LOTTERMOSER, ROBERT; LATISEVS, OLEGS; ALIAGA, JORDI
Attendance: 14875
By Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas22242325
Olympiacos Piraeus17201121
End of Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas22466994
Olympiacos Piraeus17374869
Zalgiris Kaunas
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 WALKUP, THOMAS 23:51 12 3/5 2/2   1 3 4 5       1 2   16
1 RIVERS, KC 17:12 12   4/5           2         1 14
4 LEKAVICIUS, LUKAS 9:17 11 4/4 1/1         2   3     5 1 6
10 HAYES-DAVIS, NIGEL 20:13 2 1/4 0/1   1 3 4         1 3   -2
12 VENSKUS, ERIKAS 2:12                           1 1
13 JANKUNAS, PAULIUS 16:30 1 0/1   1/2 1 1 2 1 1       2 1 2
16 LUKOSIUNAS, KAROLIS 4:56     0/2     1 1               -1
21 MILAKNIS, ARTURAS 25:20 19 2/3 5/7           1 1     3 1 14
23 GEBEN, MARTINAS 19:20 12 5/7   2/3 1 2 3   1 1 1   4 4 13
31 JOKUBAITIS, ROKAS 16:06 7 2/5   3/4   1 1 6 1 2     1 2 10
32 LEDAY, ZACH 18:28 7 1/2   5/6 1 5 6     1     1 5 14
92 ULANOVAS, EDGARAS 26:35 11 2/4 2/4 1/1   2 2 6         1 1 15
Team           1   1               1
Totals 200:00 94 20/35 14/22 12/16 6 18 24 20 6 8 1 2 22 17 103
        57.1% 63.6% 75%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 ROCHESTIE, TAYLOR 9:12 6 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1 2 1         1 1 6
2 BALDWIN IV, WADE 19:53 9 3/4 0/1 3/4   1 1 3 3 1     4 2 10
3 PAUL, BRANDON 21:06 7 1/1 1/5 2/2 1 3 4 5   1       2 13
5 NIKOLAIDIS, ALEXANDROS 3:34   0/1 0/1           1       1   -2
6 KONIARIS, ANTONIOS 23:34 2 1/3 0/3   1   1 1   3     2 3 -3
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 17:56 5 1/1 1/6         4   1     1 3 5
11 MILUTINOV, NIKOLA 26:26 8 3/5   2/2 6 7 13 1   1     1 5 23
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 21:56 15 4/4 1/4 4/5   1 1     1     1 2 12
16 PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS 24:45 3 0/3 1/3   1 1 2 2   3   1 1   -3
21 RUBIT, AUGUSTINE 18:35 10 3/3 1/1 1/2   1 1 1   2 1   1 2 11
32 ELLIS, OCTAVIUS 13:03 4 2/2       2 2   1 1 1   4 1 4
Team           2 2 4     3         1
Totals 200:00 69 19/29 6/26 13/17 12 19 31 18 5 17 2 1 17 21 77
        65.5% 23.1% 76.5%
Head coach: BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS

Head Coaches

JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
Zalgiris Kaunas
"I think this is a game where we really had a minimum of mental mistakes. Defensively we had a bad period in the second quarter, when we felt too good about ourselves and we stopped pushing. Then, we kept on pushing. I think we struggled at some moments against their switch-all defense, but then we figured it out. We got a lot of great individual performances from the guys. Everything is important. We kept on pushing. Slowly, slowly, we are getting to where we want to be. Now it is just a matter of continuing doing what we are doing. For me, the most important thing is that we understand the game plan… Hopefully we can keep building on that."
BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"I would like to congratulate Zalgiris, they played a really solid game. For us, it was a difficult process to win this game [after] losing during the game two of our experienced and good players like Spanoulis and Rochestie. We missed creation, leadership and scoring. And we played the game with guards who don't have experience at this level. At the same time, we started the game loose on defense; you have to play with physicality and we did not play this way. Zalgiris had 1 turnover in the first half and that was because of the lack of pressure from us. We know they have two good shooters, Milaknis and Rivers; they scored 9 three-pointers. Zalgiris had 63% from threes. So it was a very difficult process for us to win this game. This is EuroLeague, you need to be focused, you need to be healthy, you need to be ready for these kinds of games. We were not today. We need to pick up the pieces for the next game, which is in two days, and we don't know how many players we have. The doctor said Rochestie and Spanoulis will have an MRI. The doctor said Rochestie will miss at least three weeks with a muscle problem and for Spanoulis, it is his ankle where he had surgery last year, so we will see tomorrow what's exactly is the problem."

Players

MILAKNIS, ARTURAS
Zalgiris Kaunas
"First of all, the key was very good energy and attitude from the start of the game. We kept building quarter by quarter. I am very happy that we got the revenge. We had a lot of bad games in the past. Now we are on a good run, and I hope we will continue to improve game by game."
WALKUP, THOMAS
Zalgiris Kaunas
"69 is a number we are super happy with because any time we [keep opponents] under 80, we like where we are at. I think we executed on offense and defense today. We talk about it the whole year; it is not just playing 10 or 20 minutes, it has to be the full 40. If we do that, we are going to be a very good team and a tough to beat. Mentality for this week? 2-0."