Diminished by the casualties in the base position and the fateful afternoon of his shooters, the Real Madrid The good streak that had led him to lead the euroleague by giving in to a Olympiacos (73-60) who, with his fourth win in his last five appearances, catches up with the whites at the top of the table and surpasses them in the individual points coefficient.
Without Sergio Rodríguez, Nigel Williams-Goss and Alberto Abalde, with different problems, and with the recovered Gabriel Deck, the Spanish team tried to extend their great moment of play in Piraeus but he ended up weighed down by his mistake, especially abroad, with a 3/25 in triples (12 percent) that contributed to his average of 84.4 points per game dropping to a very poor 60.
With a couple of dunks from Walter Tavares and a good initial defensive attitude, Real Madrid seemed to have a promising staging in the Pabellón de la Paz y la Amistad. defenses They prevailed over the attacks and from the initial equality they passed to a few minutes of Hellenic dominance thanks to the success of men like Thomas Walkup, top scorer of the game with 18 points.
It was difficult for the whites to produce in attack. The rearguard of the local team closed all the routes and their five losses were punished by an Olympiacos that came to command by seven points that remained in four after the only triple of the madridistas in the first half, with the signature of Mario Hezonja ( 19-15, min 10).
Little success in both teams
Without much success from the perimeter on either side, the score slowly advanced, with minimal gains for Georgios Bartzokas’ men, until the Croatian forward, finishing off a counter-attack with a dunk, put his team ahead after chaining a 0-8 partial between the end of the first quarter and the start of the second.
It took Olympiacos almost three minutes to open their score after the break. Real Madrid displayed the best defense in the competition, although neither one nor the other managed to escape because their shooters could not find the formula to hurt their opponent. Despite the fact that eight of his first nine triples missed, Chus Mateo’s team remained in the game thanks to his strength at the back.
A triple by Kostas Sloukas and a 2+1 action by Shaquielle Mckissic gave the Athenians air in the middle of the second act. The American forward kept the hosts on top, who benefited from the exchange of errors after an even first twenty minutes in which Real Madrid paid for a bump at the end of the second act, their seven losses and their poor success from all positions during the first part (10/22 in shots from two and 1/9 in triples).
A final knock from Walkup from the perimeter gave Olympiacos the biggest lead to that point at halftime (36-28). Chus Mateo asked his team for more aggressiveness at halftime to make up for their turnovers and bad afternoon in attack. Everything continued by the same parameters in the resumption, with incomes of between five and ten points for the Greeks and Real Madrid suffering in search of a player with clear ideas in attack.
No criteria attacks
Vezenkov kept the competition leader at bay, unable to link a couple of judicious attacks. Nor was Olympiacos much inspired, which at least remained up on the scoreboard thanks to the inspiration of Walkup, its most successful man.
Isaiah Canaan, with a three-pointer, set off the alarms for the visiting team and forced Chus Mateo to stop the game when they saw themselves down 52-40. Despite the fact that he moved the bench, he continued without finding solutions to the jam of his team, who saw how time passed and everything remained the same.
With ten down after a final success by Hezonja and much to improve, Real Madrid reached the last ten minutes. Another three consecutive misses from the 6.75 line did not bode well because the end was approaching and the Greeks continued with a dozen points as booty.
The baskets arrived with a dropper. In the first three minutes of the last quarter the partial was 2-2 and four minutes from the conclusion the slab for Chus Mateo’s men was already fifteen points after a mid-range shot from their star Sloukas and a couple of free throws from Vezenkov (65-40).
The game is finished there. Real Madrid saw their good run of five consecutive victories cut short in January against an Olympiacos that rises to the top of the table, where equality is maximum with four teams tied with a record of 13-7.
Data sheet:
73 – Olympiacos (19+17+18+19): Walkup (18), Canaan (3), Papanikolau (5), Vezenkov (15) and Fall (4) -starting five- McKissic (8), Larentzakis (2), Sloukas (11), Bolomboy (2), Peters ( -) and Black (5).
60 – Real Madrid (15+13+16+16): Llull (6), Causeur (3), Deck (4), Yabusele (6) and Tavares (12) -starting five- Rudy Fernández (-), Hezonja (9), Hanga (2), Poirier (4), Cornelie (2) and Muse (12).
Referees: Ilija Belosevic, Emin Mogulkoc and Robert Vyklicky. no deleted
Incidents: Match corresponding to day 20 of the first phase of the Euroleague basketball played at the Pavilion of Peace and Friendship in Athens before some fifteen thousand spectators.