Olympiacos wronged itself and was left out of the Euroleague final.
Despite the fact that the "red and white" had a bad first half, both defensively and offensively, as a result of which they found themselves behind in the score even with 25 points (52-29) at 19', Giorgos Bartzokas' team reacted in the second 20 minutes, "nibbled" the difference under ten, however, errors and failure in the finale deprived it of a mythical turnaround, losing with the final 87-76 to Real Madrid.
Madrid took full advantage of it and with their "weapon" long shot (9/12 sq.), they closed the half at +19 and 56-37.
With the defense improving on replay and Alec Peters being sensational to break through the attack, with Nigel Williams-Goss ably supporting him, they gradually managed to cut the gap to 8, however, in the finale, the lack of clarity and two cheap mistakes in the last two minutes, turned the tide in favor of the Spaniards, who will face Panathinaikos AKTOR in the grand final on Sunday (26/05, 21:00).
Leading scorer for the winners was Dzanan Moussa with 20 points, with Hezonia (12pts, 6pts), Poirier (11pts) and Giabuselli (11pts) following in performance for Chus Mateo's team.
For Giorgos Bartzokas, Peters finished the match with 23 points (5/6qtr.) and 10 rebounds, with Goss adding 15 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals, while McKissick who helped significantly in the first half , scored 17 points and 4 rebounds.
Now, Piraeus are invited to face Fenerbahce in the final of the Final 4 at 18:00 on Sunday.
The match:
Giorgos Bartzokas started with his classic five and Walkap, Kanaan, Papanikolaou, Peters and Fal, with Tsous Mateo choosing a high five with Campazzo, Moussa, Hezonia, Ediage and Tavares. The game started at a very good and fast pace, with both teams engaging in a… three-point contest in the opening minutes. Specifically, Olympiacos found two shots behind 6,75m. with Kanaan and Peters, with three three-pointers by Hezonia and one by Moussa – but also a two-pointer earlier by Tavares – putting Real Madrid ahead 14-6 in the 4th minute.
The Reds fell to 14-8 on Walkup's two-pointer, with Madrid then taking advantage of Piraeus' nervousness that translated into mistakes and missed shots to go on a quick 5-0 run for its first double-digit lead of the night. (19-8) at 6'. A two-pointer by Fal after his own offensive rebound gave Olympiakos offensive "breath", with Giorgos Bartzokas' team however "short-circuiting" in the last 3,5 minutes, remaining without a point. During this period, the "merenches" ran a 9-0 run (they had 6/8 three-pointers in the quarter), closing the first period at +18 and 28-10.
With Filip Petrusev coming forward on defense and offense early in the 2nd period, taking the Greek team on his back, the Serbian forward with five collected points, narrowed the gap to 13 (20-15) at 11'. But again, the Spaniards continued to throw… pebbles into the lake behind the three-point line, going +18 for 33-15 at 13′. Kanaan and Sergio Rodriguez then "exchanged" three-pointers (36-18), with McKissick a little later with a boyish field goal to cut it to 38-21 a minute later.
With the American guard/forward being the only one from Olympiakos who brought out passion and intensity in his game, the "red and whites" reduced the difference from 20, to 48-24 at 15'. Another 23-pointer by Rodriguez, however, along with a nailer by Poirier, pushed the lead to +47 (24-18) for the first time, before McKissick and Papanikolaou, "gnawed" the lead again, dropping it to 47 (29- 25). With Poirier dominating the racket, Real even reached +54 (29-13), before McKissick (2pt., 56cl. in the half) with two big three-pointers, one of which with a terrible buzzer beater in the dead time, sent the two teams to the locker room with a score of 37-XNUMX.
The few minutes of halftime interruption proved to be beneficial for Olympiakos, which has often improved in the second 20 minutes this year. And so tonight, Giorgos Bartzokas' players came out on the floor of the "Uber Arena" with... shining eyes, raising their performance in defense. With Alec Peters capitalizing on two offensive rebounds, he found his way to the basket on just as many occasions, with Walkup scoring a short time later to make it 56-43 at 23'! Indicative of the very good defense of Piraeus, Real found their first basket after 4:20 minutes in the third period, a period in which they had accumulated mistakes and wrong choices in the attack!
Williams-Goss and Musa "traded" consecutive shots for 63-48 in the 26th minute, with Alec Peters (14 points in the quarter) from that point until the end of the quarter ... on fire offensively and with nine points (! ) – of which two three-pointers – to reduce to 11 (69-58), before Poirier from the line of the shots shaped the score of the quarter for 71-58.
The American forward of Olympiakos was clearly in the... twilight zone and in "cold blood" hit his fourth three-pointer of the match at the beginning of the fourth and final period, reducing the difference to 71-61! The "Queen" responded with the same coin as Giabucelli, when Williams-Goss on the very next attack with a shot from behind 6,75m, again dropped the difference to the edges of 10 points (74-64) in 32′.
Yule with a difficult two-pointer made it 76-64 in the "caps", for Goss to come after 1,5 minutes of consecutive missed shots and with a three-pointer to reduce the difference to a single digit value (76-67) at 34 ′!
Then Fal's foul on Yule's 1-pointer didn't… hurt Olympiakos, as the Spaniard made just 3/77 of his shots (67-8), with Goss continuing to find offensive solutions, cutting to 77 (69-4). on the opposite side of the parquet. Tavares and Rodriguez with a short 0-12 run increased the difference again +81 (69-81), before McKissic with a huge three-pointer reduced it to 72-37 at XNUMX′!
With shots by Tavares and a two-pointer by Moussa after a mistake by McKissick, Real went up 85-73 with 1:34 before the final, with Goss on the very next attack "selling" the ball cheaply, for his nail Musa also won 87-73, 69" before the end, thus ending any chances of an upset. All Olympiacos was able to do was reduce the final 87-76 with a three-pointer by Peters.
The ten minutes: 28-10, 56-37, 71-58, 87-76.
Source: sport-fm.gr