Against the bottom of the table, who arrived in Greece without even De Colo, Noah (and Loverne, who has been out since the beginning of the year), Olympiakos clinched victory without even gaining momentum. Despite this, they won by a margin of 26 points, mathematically securing home field advantage in the playoffs. It remains to be seen in which position he will finish and who will be his opponent on the way to Kaunas.

The “Red-Whites” still have three games to play. They host Panathinaikos on Friday (3/31), play Red Star on April 6 and end on 4/13. at home with Baskonia. With two wins they secure at least 2nd place because even if Barcelona make 3/3 they are better in the draw against the Catalans.

Olympiacos will either win all three remaining games or if Real cannot win another one as they also have the disadvantage of being level with the ‘Red Whites’ who have beaten the Queen in both Madrid and Faliro.

It’s time for the Piraeus team to reap the rewards of their great run so far in the EuroLeague. He was the first to get a ticket to the playoffs, the first to secure home field advantage. The work in the regular season isn’t over yet, but the stress, the nervousness, the calculation and the question marks about what the opponent will do are gone.

With three games left in the regular season, Olympiacos are left with no choice but to do as Bartzokas said after easily defeating ASVEL. To look at the upcoming matches in order and at the end see who he will play with in the playoffs. He went into the 31 games played with this pattern and will not change his strategy now.

McKissick always plugged in

Olympiacos were missing the patient Fal, who started but remained on the bench throughout the game. He also missed Kanan who was in the US to see his newborn baby. He wanted to simplify things from the start. Shaquille McKissick, who started in place of Kanan, attested to the great situation he has been in for the past month.

Constantly plugged in, Shaq provides additional energy and sweeps his opponents. In the last five games, he’s really unstoppable as he’s averaging 16.2 points with terrible percentages (71.4% d and 56.2% tr) while also having 2.4 assists and 0.7 rebounds .

The American always has an explosive first step, but he also plays more maturely when you see how he uses his teammates and certainly shoots with great confidence. Yesterday he didn’t score a three but didn’t miss a single two, finished the match on 5/5 and was back in the lead in a rather indifferent game.

His own points and assists pushed the score into double digits early on. Bartzokas quickly pulled him on the bench to match Kostas Sloukas pace but the three fouls made by the Greece international quickly upset him and likely broke the rhythm Olympiacos had found after the third-fourth minute…

Walkup doesn’t shave

“Plugged” is also played by Thomas Walkup. From the looks of it, his beard will be huge as he revealed he won’t shave it off until his team qualifies for the last four. However, the bionic guardian of Olympiakos “shaves” his opponents quite well. Tireless, unshakable, full of passion, he leaves no phase unused. Not a single ball he doesn’t claim.

He is having an exciting year at 7.8p, 2.6p, 5.6 asp and 1.9kg. He’s first in steals, among the top five passers, but the numbers seem cold to reflect the fiery temper that unfolds on the floor each night, making Olympiacos unapproachable, impenetrable as the American puts his body and hands forward brings.

Walkup will play incredible defense, snatching a crucial rebound, stealing balls and – if necessary – even scoring from long distances, which isn’t his… favorite part of the game, but he’s improved it – and that – significantly, if you want Consider that he has 36.7% three-pointers, while he didn’t surpass 30% last year.

And Papanikolaou in the hidden-open role…

TJ Parker may not be familiar with Papanikolaou’s surname and instructs Villeurbanne time-out to give him a call… However, Papadopoulos, another coach, Andrea Trinchieri, spoke about the covert role of ‘Pap’ at this year’s Olympiakos, which he described as a team on a mission: “And the most committed to this effort is none other than Papanikolaou. In every game, probably in every training session, he’s more focused than anyone.” The Italian Bayern coach told Nova, adding: “He followed in the footsteps of Spanoulis and Printezis in the dressing room…”

Trinchieri is not wrong. Not only has the Olympiacos captain perfectly executed the two “myths” associated with the team, he also has one of the best, if not the best year of his career: 8.9p, 3.2r, 2as (62.% d, 46%tr, 71%b) and countless distractions, defenses and assists for the benefit of his team.

He repeated it yesterday on a typical day for him with 10 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.

And real with advantage

And while Olympiacos easily defeated Villeurbanne, Real prevailed against Fener, securing home advantage in the playoffs but also falling short of the “Red-Whites”. The Turks missed a chance to get close to Monaco, who were beaten by the dynamic Zalgiris in Kaunas.

Fener now sits 5th with Maccabi on 18 wins. It’s better with a draw, but it also has a more difficult schedule as it plays Baskonia on Friday, 4/6. against Efes and on 13.4. in Belgrade against Red Star. Maccabi has two home games (at Milan and Real), in between they travel to Kaunas.

Zalgiris’ win was very important as the Lithuanians remain on course for qualifying despite being behind in the draw, but they can win all three remaining games if we consider that they welcome Valencia and Maccabi while they will do it away play against Bayern. In this game, in order not to be eliminated from the playoffs, Baskonia must also win three games (Fener-Villeurban at home, Olympiacos away). Otherwise both are enough…