Tsamba and Verese, which I shot in the Kallithea stadium!

How and how I expected Nikola Milutinov and Mustafa Fal to play together, but Giorgos Bartzokas didn’t do me the favor of reviving the legend of “TwinTowers”!

And he won’t even do it to me, that’s what he told me many times when I asked him if this fantasy could become a reality.

“I rule it out” he replied sharply and then added with a laugh: “But if you insist so much, or if we run out of players due to fouls, I might go for it»!

He said it and I kept it, after all, as the saying goes: “Do not put a bun on a candle and a child»!

Olazuwon and Slukas

I’m neither a saint nor a child, but a basketball prodigy who would love to see a French-Serbian mix of Hakeem Olazuwon and Ralph Sampson!

Obviously, this case is the last one that concerns the Olympiakos coach, because the penultimate case concerns the emotional burden or motivation of tomorrow’s first meeting with the… nameless one, who is neither unbaptized nor anonymous.

His name is Kostas Sloukas!

I dared to do it with great hesitation and fear of the bass, and that led me to ask him about this encounter too. He responded by bringing up Sasha Vezenkov, and apparently, like Slukas, he is reserved for further action.

I’m waiting for you too, tomorrow afternoon!

Wait until Friday

Meanwhile, Olympiacos Piraeus has played against six of us (Prometheus, two with Armani Milano, Zalgiris, Maccabi, Peristeri) and in none of them he was allowed to compete fully so that his coach could check the level of readiness and excellence and say go.

When McKissic can’t, when Fal is in pain, when someone is outnumbered, when Brazdeikis gathers his team in Kaunas and doesn’t come together!

With this in mind, Bartzokas will have to wait until next Friday when he will field his full team in OAKA against Panathinaikos.

Spanoulis and hunts

What happened in the first semi-final of the SuperCup?

As Vassilis Spanoulis also admitted: “The difference in athleticism and quality that separates the two teams was visible and left us two gears behind.”

After the furious start, led by Kostas Papanikolaou, who scored nine points with Mani Mani, Olympiacos’ energy and speed indicators dropped, while at the same time there was the crescendo of Jalen Hands, who scored 19 points in the first game with 4/4 three-pointers Halftime gave Peristeriotes the opportunity to take a 30-29 lead.

The reflexes and Milutinov

The difference became clear, which Spanoulis pointed out afterwards, who incidentally resorted to zone defense at times.

Therefore, Olympiacos Piraeus, among others, has the key reflexes typical of top teams and allowed it to react systematically and not convulsively, “run” a 1-0 run, take a 39:30 lead and never look back . , while the difference reached 20 points (75-55) thanks to a foul goal from Milutinov.

After three years in Moscow, the Serbian center recovered, achieved a double-double and, together with Trevor Thompson’s innate inability to look him in the eye, became the besieging battering ram and the safe support of the three European champions.

Half the work of Williams-Goss

A former and current teammate of Milutinjov provided the necessary on the sidelines: I mean Nigel Williams-Goss, who stormed onto the field (coming from the bench) and, on the one hand, proved that he will not be satisfied with this role of … Walkcap- Weapons and on the other hand, that he doesn’t sell seaweed for silk ribbons!

I write this because on the day his return to Piraeus via Madrid was announced, the American guard had said: “I have come back to finish the work I left unfinished four years ago.”

However, here is Rhodes, here is the first jump to which he responded with absolute success on all levels.

Olympiacos Piraeus doesn’t have much to offer from its first official test of the season, except of course the comfortable victory and qualification for tomorrow’s final.

Like Fortunis with El Kambi!

Aside from his active clinical picture and the statistical figures documenting it, there were also some specific images worth observing and highlighting, but also receiving the acclaim of the admiring public.

Here are some of them.

• Just eighty seconds into the semi-final, Tomas Walkup and Kostas Papanikolaou played a fantastic one-two (à la Frotunis and El Kambi) in the open field and the Olympiakos captain scored in a phase where he lost the ball!

• The Red and Whites, known and envied throughout the EuroLeague for their excellent ball circulation, correct spacing in attack and extra passes, generously offered several such phases, regardless of the central creator (Walkap, Goss, Luntzis) and the end of the shot.

The hunter… Kanan and Larry… beans

• At some point in the third period, Isaiah Kanan played it…Fireball, and while he was on the floor and trapped, the Bagasse not only managed to keep the ball, but also used it as an assist to Milutinov, who made up for his Effort and persistent attempt to score points.

• At the end of the third period (score 63-50) Giannoulis Larentzakis saw it… Panagiotis Fasoulas and like “Pani” beat Paolo Moretti outside the 6:25 minutes in the memory mill, the penultimate phase of the third game of In the playoffs with the The onrushing guard from Kythnos Hunts forced Buckler Bologna to the sky with a three-point shot!

Missed layups and the same side

On the other hand, Bartzokas of course has the right to complain about the many missed layups, especially the one from Walkap after a pass from Laretzakis, and in fact he deserves a place in the blunders in front of an empty goal!

Last Monday, at the Stadium of Peace and Friendship, Bartzokas stated emphatically (and not to arouse… pity) that “We had the worst preparation I can remember in my career» and today he brought the matter to the table again from a different perspective.

In other words, he said that at this stage of the season the most important thing is to get all the players on the same page, something that all the coaches are looking forward to at the start of the season.

He also used a beautiful expression to support this: “Let’s be close to each other».

He’s not wrong, because homogeneity is actually an invaluable asset.