2019-20Regular SeasonRound 8
November 15, 2019 CET: 20:30
Local time: 21:30 PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP STADIUM

Olympiacos beats Zalgiris to return to winning path

Olympiacos Piraeus ended its four-game losing streak against Zalgiris Kaunas by beating the visiting Lithuanians 83-74 on Friday. The hosts trailed at halftime 37-39 but a nice long-range shooting display in the third quarter allowed them to build a small lead that was extended to double-digits, 74-61, late in the game. The Reds bounced back from two painful losses at home to improve their record to 3-5, tied with Zalgiris (3-5) and two other teams, still far from the playoff spots. Vassilis Spanoulis led the way for Olympiacos with 16 points and 7 assists. Nikola Milutinov followed him and added 14 points and 8 boards, while Brandon Paul, Georgios Printezis and Willie Reed contributed 14, 10 and 10 points, respectively, for the winners. Jock Landale collected 23 points, Lukas Lekavicius 14 and Thomas Walkup 10 for Zalgiris.

The visitors started in great fashion, displaying a strong defense and dominating the offensive glass. Landale scored in the paint twice right before committing an early second foul, but Martinas Geben replaced him and added a three-point play to give Zalgiris a 3-7 lead. Spanoulis and Willie Reed took over and combined to put Olympiacos in front, and Printezis joined them later to to reach the 3,000-point mark in his Turkish Airlines Euroleague career with a layup that restored a lead for Olympiacos, 13-12 after 7 minutes. Zalgiris resisted and took advantage of a balanced offensive game to re-take the lead, 15-18, but a late rally boosted by Brandon Paul closed the first period with the Reds winning 19-18. Lekavicius opened fire in the second quarter with a huge three to make it 19-21, but Paul remained hot to tie at 21-21. Zalgiris surged next, with Landale and Nigel Hayes hitting from deep in a 0-8 run to a 25-32 Zalgiris advantage. After a timeout, Spanoulis hit the first triple for the hosts, sparking a 10-2 spurt that returned the lead to the home side, 35-33. Zalgiris didn't panic, though, as Landale used his quickness to score 4 more points for a 37-39 edge at halftime. Printezis and Antonio Koniaris hit back-to-back three-pointers to bring the Reds in front again, 45-39, after the break. Zalgiris remained scoreless for more than 3 minutes until Edgaras Ulanovas and Thomas Walkup reduced the gap to 45-43. Spanoulis, Taylor Rochestie and Paul responded with three-pointers for Olympiacos to make it 55-4, but free throws by Lekavicius and Walkup allowed Zalgiris to stay alive, 60-55, after 30 minutes. Free throws by Landale and Milutinov were all that dropped early in the final quarter. When Landale sat with fouls, the Spanoulis-Milutinov duo took advantage to extend the gap to 66-59. Paul hit from three later to give Olympiacos a double-digit lead, forcing a Zalgiris timeout. Rochestie showed up to make another triple, however, after which Olympiacos never lost momentum. Led by Spanoulis, the Reds entered the last minute ahead 81-70, and needed nothing but a couple of free throws by Milutinov to seal the outcome.

The curse is now broken

Zalgiris had won four straight and seven of its last eight games against Olympiacos. A last block by Kostas Papanikolau on Edgaras Ulanovas's dunk attempt was the perfect ending to celebrate the long-awaited win for the Reds against the Lithuanians.

Threes in the third

Olympiacos ranked last in the competition in three-point shooting before the game, but found the much-needed accuracy when it was needed most. The Reds got 5 three-pointers by five different players in the third quarter, which allowed them to build a solid margin until the end.

Printezis reaches 3,000

Turkish Airlines Euroleague all-decade nominee Georgios Printezis reached the 3,000-point mark in the competition tonight. His off-the-glass shot in the first quarter made him just the third player to achieve the milestone, after Juan Carlos Navarro and his Olympiacos teammate Vassilis Spanoulis.

Landale's foul trouble

Jock Landale was the most productive player on Zalgiris, posting 23 points in 19 minutes. Going in and out with foul trouble didn't prevent him from setting his Euroleague career highs with 19 points and a 23 PIR.

Next game

Olympiacos will travel to Munich to face Bayern next Tuesday, while Zalgiris will host arch-rival Panathinaikos OPAP Athens in the famous Greek Derby the same day.

Vassilis Spanoulis - Olympiacos Piraeus - EB19
Friday, November 15, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: BELOSEVIC, ILIJA; CORTES, CARLOS; HORDOV, TOMISLAV
Attendance: 5516
By Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus19182323
Zalgiris Kaunas18211619
End of Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus19376083
Zalgiris Kaunas18395574
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 PUNTER, KEVIN 11:59   0/1 0/3     1 1           2   -5
1 ROCHESTIE, TAYLOR 16:37 8 0/1 2/4 2/2       2   3     3 2 3
2 BALDWIN IV, WADE 10:21     0/2     2 2 1   1     2 1 -1
3 PAUL, BRANDON 23:49 14 3/3 2/5 2/2   3 3 1 2 2     4 1 12
6 KONIARIS, ANTONIOS 13:28 3   1/4     1 1   1       3 1  
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 23:58 16 5/8 2/6     2 2 7 1 3     1 1 16
11 MILUTINOV, NIKOLA 22:10 14 4/5   6/9 2 6 8 2     2   2 7 27
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 2:07 2     2/2                   1 3
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 30:08 10 2/4 1/1 3/3   3 3     1     3 5 12
16 PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS 20:50 2 1/1 0/1     4 4 3     1   3 2 8
21 RUBIT, AUGUSTINE 10:27 4     4/4       1         2 4 7
33 REED, WILLIE 14:06 10 4/5   2/3   2 2       2   1 3 14
Team           4 2 6     2         4
Totals 200:00 83 19/28 8/26 21/25 6 26 32 17 4 12 5 0 26 28 100
        67.9% 30.8% 84%
Head coach: KEMZURA, KESTUTIS
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
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 26:33 10 2/9 0/3 6/6   4 4 5 2 3   1 1 4 10
2 PEREZ, ALEX 10:36 5 2/2   1/1       4         2 1 8
4 LEKAVICIUS, LUKAS 23:52 14 4/7 1/2 3/4   2 2 4 1       1 4 19
10 HAYES-DAVIS, NIGEL 23:54 3 0/2 1/2   2 2 4 2   2     3 1 2
13 JANKUNAS, PAULIUS 9:39 2 1/1 0/1     3 3           2 1 3
21 MILAKNIS, ARTURAS 17:32 1   0/3 1/1                 5 1 -6
23 GEBEN, MARTINAS 7:25 5 2/3   1/1 2 2 4           1 1 8
31 JOKUBAITIS, ROKAS 2:05     0/1                       -1
32 LEDAY, ZACH 16:30 4 2/5       2 2     2   2 4 2 -3
34 LANDALE, JOCK 19:13 23 7/8 1/3 6/6 3   3   1       4 3 23
40 GRIGONIS, MARIUS 21:46 5 1/4 1/3     3 3     1     4 6 4
92 ULANOVAS, EDGARAS 20:55 2 1/3 0/1   1 2 3 1 2 2   2 1 1 1
Team           2 1 3               3
Totals 200:00 74 22/44 4/19 18/19 10 21 31 16 6 10 0 5 28 25 71
        50% 21.1% 94.7%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS

Head Coaches

KEMZURA, KESTUTIS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"I want to start giving thanks to the fans. They showed loyalty to us in the tough times, they came tonight, and they gave us a lot of energy, so big thanks for them. Also, I want to say congratulations to our two legendary players, Vassilis Spanoulis and Georgios Printezis, the second- and third-best scorers in the Euroleague. I'm very proud they are playing for us and that they fight together with us. I wish them the best of luck in many, many good years. I want to congratulate also all the team, the guys. I understand it wasn't easy circumstances. It has not been an easy period for us after the last defeats, after those two tough losses, but the guys showed character, they showed spirit, and I think we deserved the win because we played as a team basically all game. In the first half, we made a few mistakes and they hurt us with the offensive rebounds. It's something that we were stressing since the beginning of the preparation, the importance of winning the rebounding battle. Now, when you look at the stats you can see we won it by one, we showed more aggressiveness in the second half, on both sides. We hit a few big threes, took the lead and got control of the game. Besides the main guys of whom we know their capability, what they can bring to the team, I want also to mention the guys who came from the bench, because it's very important. I want to mention also our newcomers, like Willie Reed, who gave us good minutes, and also Taylor Rochestie."
JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
Zalgiris Kaunas
"Congratulations to Olympiacos. We played a not-so-tough game today and that’s what we had set out to do, because Olympiacos was under a little bit of pressure. We expected that with this pressure the big players would show up, and if we look at the stat sheet you can see exactly who showed up. Like I said, it's a very disturbing situation with our aggressiveness in this game. We can only win by playing very aggressive, and we shot just three fouls shots in the first half. We gave up 15 points in bonus situations. We survived because Olympiacos didn't make any outside shots, and the end this is exactly how they beat us in the second half, making a lot of outside shots."

Players

SPANOULIS, VASSILIS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"I think we worked a lot, and some of this work came to the floor. We have a lot of work more to do. I think we worked harder, we chased every ball, we rebounded hard, we played smarter on offense, and we managed to make a big win."
MILUTINOV, NIKOLA
Olympiacos Piraeus
"It was so important to win this game because we were in such a difficult position. We did it, but it was just one win. We need to keep going, to continue, and to work hard and forget this game and concentrate for another."
WALKUP, THOMAS
Zalgiris Kaunas
"I think aggression was the biggest thing that we were missing today, from the start to the end, basically. That is on us, just how we came out, was poor on our part. If we are going to win EuroLeague games it is not going to be with this type of effort and aggression. We have to do a better job of getting teams into the bonus, attacking, always playing aggressive and not waiting until they get to the bonus to drive the ball. It has to be all 40 minutes where we drive and kick, and get the offense jump-started."
No results found.