By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus star Evan Fournier broke down the sequence that led to his winning layup at the buzzer against Barcelona on the road.
“I was super tired and I wanted to go home,” Fournier joked while talking to Nova. “It was simple. We have 18 seconds left on the game clock so we have to pretty much take the shot no matter what. Timing was very important. Then we run a play with Sasha and I. I got the switch. Jabari [Parker] did a pretty good job sitting on my left hand. So I kind of fumbled the ball a bit. And when I looked up, it was just two seconds. It was time to go, the lane was open and that’s it.”
After Kevin Punter tied the game at 88 for Barca with 19 seconds remaining, Fournier received the ball from Nigel Williams-Goss, gave it to Sasha Vezenkov and immediately received it back. He almost lost the ball while dribbling against Jabari Parker’s defense but managed to retain it.
With two seconds left on the clock, Fournier beat Parker on the dribble, took advantage of Nikola Milutinov clearing a lane by pinning down Chimezie Metu who was ready to come to the help defense and made the layup for the win.
“That’s key when you want to make big plays,” Fournier added on losing the dribble a bit in the beginning of the play. “You have stay composed. You have to be in the moment. Not fear to miss. I’ve been fortunate enough to be in that position very often in my career. That always helps. With those kind of things you learn as you go. I’m 32 now, it’s not my first time”
Fournier finished with 18 points, like he did in the win at Paris Basketball two days ago.
“When you are a player you want to live those moments,” Fournier then mentioned after he was asked if he came to Olympiacos for this kind of moments. “You want to experience them. Miss or make. You want to live those emotions that bring us closer. That’s why we love sports. I’m glad the coach trusted me with the play.”