By Panos Katsiroumpas / info@eurohoops.net
The Magnifying Glass analyzes the big game in Moscow between CSKA and Olympiacos with the result affecting also Fenerbahce. It was a tough game that prepares us for the playoffs. In the end CSKA defeated Olympiacos after a great battle, with Olympiacos playing well despite their big absences.
If we look for the most important factor of this game we can only refer to SIZE. CSKA almost choose to play this game and try to win it with their size advantage and this was clear from the 1st second of the game.
With a very tall line-up, having Weems and Kirilenko in 2&3 position, Vorontsevich and Kaun in the forward and center, they clearly looked for miss matches inside from the early possessions. Weems, Kirilenko and Kaun scored in the paint giving their team advantage in the beginning of the game. Although Olympiacos had some good defensive plays the biggest problem was that the Reds couldn’t rebound the ball. The Russian team had many second chance opportunities and put the pressure in the defense of Olympiacos.
On the other hand Olympiacos had a clear path in their offensive strategy. This was Printezis, Printezis and Printezis. In every play the reds were looking for their talented post-up forward, and he decided the way the Reds will attack. Primarily he was looking for direct execution if he was defended with single coverage, or tried to pass the ball when the double team arrived. He had some good looks to pass the ball in the perimeter, with extra passes leading to open shots. Moreover if the double team was coming from the center he tried to pass inside to Hunter that scored some baskets especially in the 1st half.
The Russian team took advantage of their size also in defense in 2 ways. They set traps and double teams in the half-court, especially when Olympiacos had in his line-up Lojeski in 2 position in order to create difficulties in the ball movement and force turnovers. Moreover they were extremely effective in man to man defense with Kirilenko being great in both individual defense, but also in the close out defenses.
The best parts of Olympiacos in offense were in periods that had 2 creators in the backcourt and Lojeski in the small forward position. This line-up although was problematic in defense, where Olympiacos had better rotations with Darden and Papapetrou in the small forward. The Reds were unlucky because both of them had a bad offensive game missing some open shots from the perimeter.
If we add the 13 more offensive rebounds and the 7 less turnovers, we conclude that the Russian team had almost 20 more possessions, something that put extra fatigue in the defense of Olympiacos. Despite the 20 more possessions CSKA didn’t move the ball well, they tried to attack many times in isolations off the dribble. They didn’t found open shots from their ball movement, but most of them were after offensive rebound with the defense of Olympiacos being in imbalance.
The number of assists proves this fact with Olympiacos having one more assist (16-15) despite the number of possessions and the absence of Spanoulis who is the leading creator of his team. In the 2nd half, Olympiacos didn’t have spaces to play pick n roll and executed mostly in the switches with Sloukas and Lojeski executing well in offensive plays that shooting was their only option.
Concluding we can say that CSKA won this game due to their size, that played role in both defending, creating miss matches and rebounding. Olympiacos played well, they defended effectively especially after the first 8-9 minutes but their inability to control the rebounds put them in disadvantage.