By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus coach Kestutis Kemzura talked about the announcements made by EuroLeague Basketball on controversial crunch time plays in recent games of Fenerbahce Beko, ahead of the match of his team against the Turkish powerhouse Thursday (2/1).
“I don’t think any coach wants to go into that. It just happens,” Kemzura said when asked if these announcements are an extra motivation for Olympiacos to not let the upcoming game be decided in the last play. “I just hope all those statements [by EuroLeague] won’t affect any referees. The referees who will be officiating the game. I want to believe that it will not affect not any big names or something. That they will be fair enough and call the game in the right way.”
On December 18, EuroLeague had released a report following the loss of Fenerbahce to Panathinaikos Athens regarding a non-call on a foul made by Greens’ guard Tyrese Rice on Nando De Colo during the latter’s game-tying attempt. A few days ago, EuroLeague issued another report, saying that Valencia guard Jordan Loyd committed an offensive foul prior to scoring the game-winner against Fenerbahce in Istanbul.
These two defeats are a part of a four-game skid that has dropped Fenerbahce to 5-11 Olympiacos stands at 6 – 10 following back-to-back losses to Crvena Zvezda and Barcelona on the road.
“Everybody understands the importance of this game,” Kemzura said. “No matter what people say about Fenerbahce not being at its best, they remain a good team, a great team with a great coach. Even though they have some limitations with injuries, they are a very dangerous team. We are very serious and we are preparing for a tough game tomorrow.”
Fenerbahce will be minus big men Jan Vesely, Joffrey Lauvergne and Ahmet Duverioglu vs. Olympiacos.
“They will try to double or trap our low post and try to gain some advantage on the offensive end by attacking our bigs. We’ll try to be ready for that and use the advantage we have. It will be interesting to see how it works,” Kemzura commented.
“The game doesn’t change,” Olympiacos center Willi Reed said on the injury issues of his opponent. “We go out there and we play the way we play. No matter who they throw out there. We understand that they still have talented players and we have to go out there and play our brand of basketball.”
Reed comes from a season-high performance of 15 points in 21 minutes against Barcelona. “I’ve been feeling really good out there. The more I’m out there, the more confident I get. I’m excited for the opportunity but I just want to help the team win.”