Olympiacos love the odds being stacked against them. Two Final Four events they’ve been written off, but they manage to find themselves back in the final again.
There was no memorable comeback this year though. This was a fairly one-sided affair as Olympiacos defeated CSKA Moscow 69-52 in London to seal their sixth Euroleague title game in eight seasons.
Kyle Hines and Pero Antic led the winners with 13 points each as the reigning champions’ execution along with CSKA’s poor free throw shooting were major factors in the outcome of the first semi-final played on English shores.
“It was amazing defensive effort from us tonight,” said Hines. “Our coach gave us a great game plan and it was a great team effort. From the beginning, we wanted to set the tempo of the game – and we did that.
“The guys that were on the court played as a team. Everybody came in, played well and played their role. Probably, under these circumstances, it was our best defensive game this season.”
For all of CSKA’s power inside, the Reds managed to cut that power out as the Russian league champions looked clueless and at times unable to get a shot off, they failed to even register a single field goal in the third as Olympiacos’ determination and will to get to the basket.
While slightly animated, Moscow coach Ettore Messina called the third quarter effort “bullshit” but calmed down enough to get serious.
“Even if I haven’t watched the game properly yet, that was one big thing offensively that we did poorly,” he said. “They were very aggressive on one side of the floor and all our passes to go to the other side [of the court] were always low or out of target.”
Vassilis Spanoulis, who scored eight points, praised his side’s defensive effort.
“It was an unbelievable defensive game for us,” this season’s MVP said.
“We played great defence all the way and that helped us to beat a really tough opponent. This is one of the best defensive efforts I have ever seen.”
Sonny Weems replied for CSKA with 13 points himself. Victor Khryapa added 11.
It was a drastic contrast from last year’s championship game in Istanbul where 15,000 plus witnessed one of the most dramatic finales in Final Four history; it was replaced, 12 months later with a half-full 02 Arena when the game tipped off.
For the best part of the first quarter, both Olympiacos and CSKA Moscow lived at the foul line, as the physicality of the event took center stage. The Russians took an early 8-4 lead thanks to triples from Weems and Khryapa but the Reds replied and eventually wrestled the lead away and ended the first period, ahead 24-17. A timely bucket from Kostas Sloukas sent the large contingent of Greeks into mass hysteria.
The Reds continued their burst, with an 11-3 run to lead 35-23 before Sasha Kaun dunked home to break the Greek side’s stranglehold.
CSKA’s scoring run was short-lived though, and it was indeed the story throughout the contest.
The Greeks hit Moscow in transition often – and to great success – They reached a double digit as the half closed, Olympiacos led 40-28.
The Reds kept the intensity going in the third, defensively shutting down CSKA’s inside presence, and forcing them into three-point attempts as they trailed 53-36 after three quarters. There was a brief thought of a fightback, but it proved to be to no avail.
“We wanted to control the rebounds and we had the patience to reach the end,” Olympiacos coach Georgios Bartzokas said.
“I don’t really believe we played a perfect game. defensively our goals succeeded. The most important thing is that we played together.”
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