Olympiacos — CSKA, 25 February 2021

Olympiacos Piraeus – CSKA: 74-75 (+1)

Olympiacos: Larentzakis (0), Sloukas (7 + 4 rb + 4 as + 6 to), Vezenkov (14 + 7 rb), Ellis (4 + 6 rb + 3 to + 4 pf), McKissic (24 + 4 st) – start; Harrison (5), Charalampopoulos (DNP), Spanoulis (5 + 2 as + 2 st), Printezis (9 + 4 rb + 3 as), Jean-Charles (6 + 6 rb + 2 bs), Jenkins (0), Christidis (DNP)…

CSKA: Bolomboy (10 + 8 rb), James (15 + 4 rb + 6 as + 4 to), Hilliard (4 + 4 rb), Shengelia (8 + 4 rb + 3 st), Kurbanov (5 + 6 rb + 2 as) – start; Lundberg (13 + 4 rb + 3 as + 2 st), Ukhov (DNP), Antonov (0), Strelnieks (2), Voigtmann (14 + 2 as + 2 st), Clyburn (2 + 3 as), Eric (2 + 5 rb)…

During the game, it’s been two different faces, two different approaches and mindsets regarding us and Olympiacos. The first half belonged to us; we dictated the tempo with our great defense, deflections, we forced turnovers. We controlled the rebounds and we had 13 assists for 3 turnovers, pretty much not giving them points on the open court, which is something they depend on a lot, on their primary or secondary breaks. The third quarter started pretty much the same; we went up by 25 points, but Olympiacos still had a last statement in defense, putting Vezenkov on our creators, trying to switch the ball, and that is something we were practicing in the last practices. They managed to stop our creativity, stop our mobility, forcing turnovers and running in open court situations. This is pretty much how they came back. I’m happy with the win, considering we had a new start as well, as James was almost 20 days off, Toko 21 days out of the game, and Clyburn 2 months out of the game too. I’m not trying to look for justifications, but the team in the second half looked a little bit disconnected. It takes a lot of work, a lot of effort to know each other, to know what the tough moments bring and the kind of mindset we should have on such tough moments. Though we had big shots, great defenses, we managed to win this game which is very important as this is the first road game in a series of three facing the double week.