By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Making 3-pointers had been an uphill battle for Olympiacos forward Sasha Vezenkov this season, prior to Thursday’s (17/1) win over Khimki Moscow.
After hitting 1-out-of-1 in his Euroleague debut with the Reds (a road victory over Khimki), Vezenkov missed the next 14 3-point attempts he took in the rest of the matches.
Last night though, he banked 2/3 from beyond the arc on pace to finish the game with a season-high 14 points in just 16 minutes.
“Finally…. finally! It’s back,” Vezenkov told Eurohoops on his 3-point shooting outside the locker rooms of Olympiacos. “It’s completely a mental issue. A good shooter shouldn’t think about and that’s what I tried to do.”
It’s easy to understand why this was such a frustrating matter for a player like Vezenkov.
Since his days with Aris Thessaloniki, when the Bulgarian forward established himself as one of the most prominent European talents, he was considered one highly gifted scorer and a more than legit threat from beyond the arc. But shots weren’t actually falling for him this season when he was trying to find back his flow after being kept sidelined by Barcelona in most of 2017-2018.
“Hey, even Klay Thompson had 12 percent and then went to drain eight 3-pointers,” Vezenkov said to Eurohoops. “You should always remain concentrated. The shots didn’t go in. OK, I won’t lie. When you miss some wide open shots you can’t help but think about it. But I tried not to do that and instead help my team in other areas of the game. Which in the end, is what matters.”
Apart from leading his team in points, along with forward Kostas Papanikolaou, Vezenkov also took care of his chores on the other end in what was the top defensive game for the Reds this season.
“You should always be ready to face such forwards. Most EuroLeague forwards are like that. I worked on this aspect of the game during summer and I keep working on it. There will be nights when you won’t be able to handle yourself that well but you must always remain ready”