In OT again, Real outlasts the Reds

In a fascinating game of swings, Real Madrid had the last one to survive overtime for the second time this week with an 82-86 victory over host Olympiacos Piraeus on Friday. With its ninth win in 10 games, Real improved to 10-5, good for a piece of third place with FC Bayern Munich. Olympiacos fell to 7-7. Nicolas Laprovittola scored 8 of his 19 points in overtime and dished 6 assists to lead Real. Trey Thompkins added 15 points without a miss, Walter Tavares had 13 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks, while Sergio Llull scored 10 more for the winners. Olympiacos got 18 points each from Hassan Martin and Shaquielle McKissic while Kostas Sloukas was good for 11 points and 7 assists.

Livio Jean-Charles and Octavius Ellis scored at the rim to get the hosts going Laprovittola answered with the game's first triple and Gabriel Deck downed a fastbreak layup as Real pushed ahead but McKissic raced for a three-point play for a 9-9 tie. Laprovittola and Papanikolaou kept it that way with triples, leaving a 12-12 tie after 10 defensive-minded minutes. Free throws brought the score to 17-16 before Sasha Vezenkov's tip-in was matched by Thompkins scoring on a fastbreak. A floater by Vassilis Spanoulis and a put-back from Martin broke another tie to put the Reds up 23-19. Aaron Harrison kept it going and Ellis lifted the difference to 27-19. Fabien Causeur struck from deep, stole and assisted Thompkins on the break, then stole and fed Rudy Fernandez for a triple to suddenly propel Real into the lead, 27-28. Vezenkov and Llull traded triples, which took Real to the half with a minimum 30-31 edge.

Anthony Randolph, Laprovittola and Causeur added the first 6 points of the third quarter to lift Real's lead to 30-37. Vassilis Spanoulis came to the Olympiacos's rescue with killer assists to Martin before Shaquielle McKissick drilled a triple to tie it up at 39-39. Spanoulis fed Martin a couple more times and scored himself to suddenly put Olympiacos ahead again, 48-41. Tavares stopped the bleeding for the visitors, but Jean-Charles answered with a triple. Jaycee Carroll did the same on his first touch of the game, and Thompkins followed him to finish the quarter 51-49. Carroll did it again to start the fourth by giving Real the lead, 51-52. Thompkins would add a triple after a huge block by Tavares and when Laprovittola followed, the lead had swung to 53-60 for Real. McKissic conjured another huge three-point play for Olympiacos that Kostas Sloukas followed with a triple at 59-60. Llull fed Tavares for a dunk and Sloukas reversed past Tavares at 61-62. Llull buried an open triple and McKissic drove for a layup before Carroll hit a jumper and Tavares dunked for 63-69 Real lead with 3 minutes left. Sloukas nailed a second-chance triple and Ellis hit 1 of 2 free throws at 67-69. Tavares registered his fifth block going into the final minute, but Real couldn't take advantage as Carroll's three-pointer left his hand a split-second after the 24-second shot expired, leaving 39.2 seconds on the clock. Sloukas went to the line 10 seconds later and tied it, 69-69, leading to overtime.

In the extra period, Tavares dunked for a three-point play, but McKissic answered with his own slam before Laprovittola scored 4 points in a row to make it 71-76. McKissic got 3 back at the foul line and then Sloukas fed Martin for an alley-oop and go-ahead free throw at 77-76. Alberto Abalde assisted an open Thompkins for his third triple but Sloukas hit Martin for a dunk and then a reverse layup at 81-78. Llull was left open for the go-ahead triple with 35 seconds left while Olympiacos committed a turnover with 14 seconds left. Laprovittola didn't miss from the foul line down the stretch to preserve Real's second overtime win in three days.

Pivotal performer

Walter Tavares registered a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds for Real to go with 5 often-spectacular blocked shots. If his intimidations counted, it would have been a triple-double. Tavares made 5 of 6 two-pointers and 3 of 4 free throws in 34 minutes for a PIR of 23.

Key sequence

Olympiacos had surged ahead 48-41 thanks to Vassilis Spanoulis in the third quarter and it looked like Real might be tiring from its double-overtime win against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens on Tuesday. Enter 37-year-old shooter Jaycee Carroll, who used his first touch of the game to hit a triple and soon added another to give Real the lead back at 51-52. The battle was joined from there and it was anyone's game, but not until Carroll turned it around. Also, his three-pointer in the final minute of the fourth quarter would have won it, but left his hand just as the shot-clock expired.

Moving up the charts

By making 3 of his 5 triples, including the go-ahead final one with 35 seconds left in overtime, Sergio Llull took sole possession of third place in all-time EuroLeague charts for three-pointers made, with 474. That broke his tie at 471 with Milos Teodosic. Ahead of him now are Spanoulis (498) and Juan Carlos Navarro (623).

Did you know?

Friday's overtime win marked just the third by Real at Peace and Friendship Stadium in its 15th visit there this century. The last one was on March 24, 2017, which was 12 years after the previous one, on January 20, 2005.

Next games

Both teams return to EuroLeague action for Round 16 next Wednesday. Real will be at home, hosting ALBA Berlin, while Olympiacos visits Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul.