By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Real Madrid is always dangerous, but Olympiacos, after finishing first in the regular season, demonstrated its might.
The Reds got the 84-72 win over the Whites in the first game between them for the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague playoffs.
Sasha Vezenkov, with 23 points, was the leading scorer of the winners, with Evan Fournier and Nikola Milutinov adding 13 and 11 points, respectively.
“We did a great job in the first half, in the second we didn’t play well, and if we play like this in the second game, we will have problems, we are just at 1-0”, said Vezenkov after the final buzzer.
Real Madrid had just 4/14 threes after three quarters, finishing with seven made in 24 attempts and 19 turnovers.
Madrid’s icon Sergio Llull scored 13 points, Mario Hezonja also had 13 points, Dzanan Musa added 11 and couldn’t find a solution against Olympiacos‘ defense, with Thomas Walkup returning to action and playing for nine minutes with three points, one assist, one rebound, and one turnover.
A one-team show in the first half
Olympiacos had a furious start in the game, leading 15-4 and never relaxing in the first half.
At the end of the first period, the Greeks were up by 13 points (27-14), and the halftime score was 47-29 after the first three in the game by Alec Peters.
Madrid already had 12 turnovers, coach Chus Mateo was ejected just after 46 seconds of action in the second half, and Olympiacos pushed the lead to 20 points (52-32).
Real Madrid finally pushed back and trimmed the lead to 11 points (62-51) with Andres Feliz scoring, however, Fournier closed the third period with a shot that made the score 64-51.
Thanks to Peters again, Olympiacos got back into a 17-point distance (70-53), Llull demonstrated his pride and closed the gap to 11 points (72-61), and then Walkup answered with a three (75-61).
The same sequence repeated itself with Musa making it again an 11-point game (75-64) and then Fournier making a three (78-64) with less than three minutes left.
Madrid couldn’t do anything better after that.
Photo credit: Eurokinissi