By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
The game of Olympiacos against Barcelona for the last round of the EuroLeague regular season was like a basketball film directed by David Lynch. And even he would blush in awe of the bizarreness of it.
Olympiacos was hosting the first-seeded team in EuroLeague without star guard Kostas Sloukas and key contributing center Moustapha Fall while doing so many important things plain wrong. The Reds were uncharacteristically abysmal from the charity stripe to finish with 16-27 free throws. They were getting murdered on the glass as Barcelona grabbed a season-high-tying 17 offensive rebounds against a team that doesn’t allow its opponents to renew a possession more than 10 times per game.
And then, with five minutes to play and Barcelona up 58 – 60, Olympiacos‘ dunker extraordinaire Shaq McKissic found an open airway and soared to throw down the hammer, only for the ball to hit the back of the rim and bounce away from the basket. The crowd in the arena let out a cry that was a mix of disappointment, frustration and surprise since such a missed dunk by one of the best in the business in EuroLeague looked like the icing on a massive cake of “Weird” by their favorite team.
McKissic took some payback a few sequences later when he slashed his way past Barca’s defenders and slammed the ball in for the go-ahead basket. He went on to close the game with 4-4 free throws to seal the victory for Olympiacos and cap a season-high performance of 20 points.
“Probably all of those things happening together and still winning the game. That’s probably the weirdest thing,” McKissic told Eurohoops. “It was one of those nights for us but I’m happy we managed to get the win.”
He then joked about his rare ill-fated dunk attempt. “That’s why I’m still on the ground this season because I’m getting older so I’m trying to preserve my body. But it was a little far.”
Not only did McKissic finish the game with a solid 7-10 shooting from the field but he also hit 5-6 free throws so he’ll likely be the only Olympiacos player who won’t go through any excessive drills that coach Giorgos Bartzokas may have in mind for the rest of the squad.
“We were just anxious,” McKissic said on Olympiacos’ rebounding struggles and poor night from the free-throw line. “You just want to do something so bad to the point where things that are usually normal, stop being normal. And weird things start to happen. But we managed to close it out.”
Olympiacos made a 10-0 run near the end of the third period and closed the quarter up by three thanks to a 3-pointer by McKissic. The American swingman then produced half of his team’s 22 points in the final period while putting on a terrific effort on the other end. “Defense and energy. Defense, energy and taking advantage of what they gave us on offense,” he said.
For the first time since 2018, Olympiacos is back in the EuroLeague playoffs and carrying a precious homecourt advantage. The Greek team can finish from second to third in the final standings and will face either Maccabi Tel Aviv, AS Monaco, Bayern Munich or defending champion Anadolu Efes in the quarterfinals.
McKissic is aware of his team’s possible opponents in the battle for the Final Four but doesn’t have any specific preference. Only sheer trust in his team’s capabilities and the strength of a packed Peace and Friendship gym.
After all, Olympiacos closed the EuroLeague regular season with a 13-1 record in Piraeus.
“I invite everybody. Whoever wants to come to play here, let them come play. Let’s see what happens,” McKissic said.