By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
The script for last night’s game between Olympiacos and Fenerbahce for Round 21 of the EuroLeague regular season, had been already composed, shipped and delivered by the end of the first period.
After falling behind 33 – 14 ten minutes into the game, the defending champions never actually bounced back, save for an ultimately fruitless 11-18 reaction in the second period. And Bobby Dixon, Fenerbahce‘s top player on the court by far, admitted that his team was unable to afford such an abysmal defensive entrance.
“We began soft,” Dixon told Eurohoops. “We can’t start soft. Defensively, we got to start way tougher. That’s what it is.”
Dixon wasn’t a starter. He stepped on the floor early in the second quarter and tried to spark the offensive flame his squad lacked, scoring 13 out of his team’s 18 points in the stretch. Yet the deficit that Fener suffered in the first period was way too large to be reduced enough for the launch of a serious comeback.
“They (Olympiacos) got their rhythm early. They built their lead. We were fighting hard for the whole game trying come back,” Dixon said to Eurohoops.
The American guard remained the only actual threat that Olympiacos faced on the defensive end, resuming his action after the halftime break by punishing every switch with his signature lightning-fast jumpers. Yet his opponents kept blazing from all corners, draining 3-pointers with lethal, near-perfect accuracy.
“Olympiacos had their confidence. They didn’t really miss any 3-pointer. They were 13/17. They didn’t miss. When the other team starts likes that… of course, you’re going to lose.”
The Reds came into this match following two losses in a row in EuroLeague, plus a Greek League defeat to archrival Panathinaikos. Dixon and his teammates knew that their opponents played with their backs against the wall and would bring out a potentially powerful reaction.
“They (Olympiacos) were in a desperate situation. They came out focused, locked in. And they did what they had to do.”
“Every team is going to give us their best shot. We are the defending champions. Everybody is trying to overthrow us. Everybody is going to try to play hard against us. We expect that,” the veteran guard added.
Dixon made every single second count out of the 22:07 minutes he spent on the floor and finished with a season-high 24 points. None of his teammates scored more than 8.
“I always do what is expected of me when I need to do it. Whatever my team needs at any time, I’m willing to do it. I’m capable of doing everything. Whatever my team needs I’m going to try my best to do.”
It was the 33-year-old player’s top performance since his return from a hip injury that kept him out for most of the first-leg stretch of the EuroLeague regular season. Of course, such a defeat didn’t allow him any joy to bask in.
“We lost. It (the season-high) doesn’t matter,” Bobby Dixon said.