Olympiacos recorded its fifth consecutive home win of the EuroLeague season in emphatic fashion by thrashing Baskonia 92-62 in Piraeus.
With the win, Olympiacos secures a season sweep over their counterparts as they improve to 13-5, moving them to third in the table. Baskonia are in fourth but they drop to 11-7.
Veterans Kostas Papanikolaou, Vassilis Spanoulis and Georgios Printezis all led Olympiacos with 12 points as they raced to a 50-28 half-time lead and never looked back from there as the lead peaked to 33 points after three quarters.
“It was a very important game for us because we were playing against a team that is very close in the standings, so we wanted this win and everybody gave their maximum,” Papanikolaou said.
“They gave all they got and the final score, I think, gives a lot of smiles to our coaches and our fans about our reaction and the way we played the game. Everything starts by showing your opponent that you want it more than them, to fight for each ball, for each possession.
“We did everything great today, especially on defence. A lot of their key players were not able to play their game because of our good defence and that gave us the push to run in transition and get easy points.”
Shane Larkin paced Baskonia with 12 points.
Real Madrid needed a dominant fourth period to pull away from a stubborn Zalgiris side 74-59 in Kaunas to remain second.
With the game tied up at 53-53 at the end of the third quarter, Real Madrid’s Trey Thompkins opened the final period with three consecutive three-pointers as part of a 14-0 run to put the game to bed as the Liga Endesa giants held the Lithuanian champions to just six points in the fourth.
It was a sucker punch for Zalgiris, who had deserved credit for their team performance in the first three quarters. But, Real proved that you have to play for all 40 minutes to have a chance at getting a result.
“I think the first quarter was very tied, both teams played very good defensively and offensively,” said Madrid coach Pablo Laso.
“Then I think in the second quarter we played better. We were smarter defensively and we were able to move the ball better. We finished the last minutes very good with some steals and fast breaks and we opened up the lead. In the third quarter we knew that Zalgiris was going to come out hard and we stopped a little bit on offence, we were too static. So their defence improved and we couldn’t get our rhythm offensively in the third quarter.
“I think it’s something we talked about in the short period between the third and fourth quarter and it’s something we did much better in the fourth quarter, trying to be a little bit more aggressive, trying to penetrate and looking for the open jumpers. Of course I think it was very important Trey Thompkins hitting three in a row, we opened up the lead and finally we got an important victory here in a good and solid game for both teams.”
Othello Hunter led the Spanish champs with 14 points.
Like Real, Darussafaka Dogus also needed a strong fourth quarter performance to see off Unics Kazan 71-64 in Istanbul.
Adrien Moerman led the winners with 17 points and seven rebounds as Darussafaka move to 10-8, staying in the Playoff spaces.
“Honestly, we didn’t play well today with the exception of the fourth quarter and maybe the beginning of the game,” Blatt said.
“I think the fact that we have not had a game for the last eight days caused us to lose a little bit of our rhythm. And Kazan is exactly the kind of team that, if you allow them to play their style, they slow you down and make you play a certain kind of basketball that we didn’t want to play today. So credit to them, but credit to our guys that in the fourth quarter they realized the importance of the moment and they found a way to win.”
Kazan, led by Keith Langford’s 16 points, drop to 7-11.
