Euro League
Olympiacos tries, wins and prepares for the mini uphill
A team that wins by learning, that has met its commitments well without enchanting and a hell of a week that will find them in Spain. Pantelis Diamantopoulos writes about the red 2-0, Kanaan, Sluka, “Larry”, Fal and especially Kostas Papanikolaou.
The Olympiacos basketball team’s relationship with its world over the last year… has exploded. The SEF was reminiscent of the ’90s when it was a “waste”. Some nights a few months ago the team might not have been at their best, but the crowd had decided to… clean up.
So you can understand that the first home game of this year wasn’t about the extra weapon. Booka’s luck, which happened in April due to qualifying for the Final Four, brought the penalty and Zalgiris played again (it happened again) in front of empty stands.
After the terrible and terrible double in Catalonia, without Papanikolaou and with many of what Bartzokas wants still in preparation, such a match was … a mystery. These games may look simple but they are not.
Also, I should point out something else from the foreword of this text: it may be difficult for some to distinguish what Olympiacos is trying to do. And it makes sense. And it’s early, but there’s no need to over-analyze things if it’s not your job.
What matters is that the team tries to play nice basketball. To spin the ball to go to the right choice. I write them as simply as possible. We’ll discuss everything else in the coming months and the world will see them up close… Olympiacos scored 90 points without an enchantment. For the 80 he has accepted, there will be a conversation within the walls. It is important that the racing year starts well.
Same mood
How the Lithuanians got in didn’t make much of an impression on Euroleague observers. And… not to fill the eye, they have a way of making Olympiakos difficult. It was Schmitz who damaged Barzoka’s defense first.
And indeed, if Fal didn’t get balls to end situations, the start for the Greek team would be worse. Lithuanians are not that great. But in the premiere they went to Tel Aviv and lost in the final seconds. And this time they entered the SEF again with the same spirit as in all their previous games in the last five years with Olympiacos.
The small lead of the first period meant nothing to Maksvitis’ team, but it gave them psychology and relative confidence.
Larentzakis came off the bench and worked perfectly on both sides of the field. “Larry” continues to give what the coach wants, and the longer he does that, the more necessary he will be. Especially if you don’t have your main trio. Or maybe it’s not as easy as I write it and doing Kostas an injustice. Please read on…
The uniqueness of Kostas
So “Pap” is unique, both in the national team and at Olympiakos. As strange or overdone as this may seem, it is by no means. Papanikolaou does things that I don’t think anyone can do. Certainly in Greek basketball, probably also in Europe.
A pillar in the truest sense of the word. Defense mode with additional assists and almost robotic movements. Offensively balanced like everyone else and no trouble going up the ground ten times and not shooting but not even catching the ball. So if you lack your leader’s acumen, you must find others.
Bartzokas assembled Vezenkov-Peters. That’s how it started. He also did that at times in Barcelona. McKissick took his time, Larentzakis of course. Olympiakos squad is not overcrowded. If one is missing, its neighbors are called in to cover for it. Simple things… Well, if Papanikolaou misses what I wrote you about, understand that his teammates’ commitments are greater.
Time for Kanan
Brazdeikis was the one who held Zalgiris in deep time. Except that Olympiacos not only had the start of Fal and the appearance of Larentzakis. Vezenkov raged and Walkup had an excellent second part. Slukas, every time he stepped into the villain’s position in this Kanan match, he changed the whole rhythm and made life easier for his teammates, such as Peters.
Since I’ve written about Kanan, it’s not fair to compare him to Dorsey. But fate will happen. Tyler had a great year at Olympiakos. And that will not be forgotten. He might not have been good in Belgrade but for Olympiacos he’s the one who fired the reckless shot and of course he’s always played well with Panathinaikos, especially in OAKA. And you know that counts for a lot…
Bartzokas has good statistics when it comes to selecting players, that’s nothing new. He will give time to Kanan and in the end the team is good in its commitments and has the comfort of waiting for a basketball player whose main orientation should be to “load” the opponent’s basket.
Wins with corrections…
Olympiacos went without a basket for more than four minutes in the final period. And the Lithuanians took advantage of that until Slukas caused trouble with a foul. Inspirations from Kostas and the return of Fal for the final stage could give the team the boost they need to do the laundry.
However, Zalgiris found some good shots, withstanding the pressure and keeping both the interest in her side and the fear for Olympiakos to the end. Until Larentzakis shot the three in the corner and showed it was over.
Kavanaugh and Evans didn’t let the Piraeus breathe until the end, but that too will do well. There is nothing quite like seeing your imperfections in the games while you are actually being created and winning at the same time. That is, keeping the psychology, winning the victories and showing all the disadvantages that exist and need to be corrected. Something similar happened tonight with Irini and Filias.
Spain only
The Devil’s Week will find Olympiakos in Iberia. In two words, the team will have played four games, played three away and all three will be in Spain. After Barcelona, the Piraeus team will play Real in Madrid on Wednesday and Baskonia in Vitoria on Friday.
Should we expect improvements? Absolutely. Logically, with Papanicolaou, the improvement will be immediate. Let’s see how Kanan and especially the rhythm of the team will develop against two different squads. The gunpowder-smoked and full of pranksters “Queen” and the Basques, who have no terrible material, but fight everything …
Source: sport 24
I am a writer at Sportish, where I mainly cover sports news. I’ve also written for The Guardian and ESPN Brasil, and my work has been featured on NBC Sports, SI.com and more. Before working in journalism, I was an athlete: I played football for Colgate University and competed in the US Open Cross Country Championships.
Mustafa Fal has delivered a monstrous performance in international matches and Vassilis Skoundis is tackling the problem, inevitably involving the first teacher of the art, Panagiotis Fassoulas.
“The gypsy saw his generation and his heart rejoiced,” says a proverb whose meaning fits the occasion… I mean, the occasion of Fal seeing the other Fal opposite him and enjoying him normally and in accordance with the law!
Let the necessary recommendations be made…
One of them is Mustafa Fal, who was born in Paris on February 23, 1992, he is French, he plays in his country’s national team, his hat comes from Senegal, he has been looking since he was 2.18. He is in his third season at Olympiacos…
Yusufa and Taco
The other person who competed against him yesterday is Youssoufa Fal, who was born in Dakar on January 12, 1995, is a Senegalese with French nationality, has a height of 2.21 m and is competing in Villerban for the third consecutive time…
There is of course the much wilder Taco Fal, who was also born in Dakar on December 10, 1995, spent three seasons in the NBA, is now sizzling in China and has had his head tickling the feet of God since he was 229 cm tall!
Mustafa, Yusufa and Tako have no relationship or kinship between them: they are synonymous, apart from the coincidence that ensures that they are all three kilometers long!
The triple-double figure in Pylaia
He had attacked the Olympiacos central defender again on the 11th of last month, on the occasion of the triple-double he scored in the game against PAOK in Pylaia, rare in our area, but he wanted to make us laugh for a while as his only goal!
At first he missed Yannis Fileris who treated him properly, but I also have some stitches for his fur!
To say my sin, I laughed and liked Fileris’ pun on… Wrong!
Fasoulas and… Lumidis
In any case, “Pani” was like…Lumidis in the field of coffee roasting, plus he made heads turn with soft nails with his unique and unparalleled skills.
To paraphrase Lumidis’ advertising slogan: in our case it was “Everyone in their own way and Fasoulas in their caps“!
Since the conversation broke out, the experienced PAOK and Olympiacos international center has recorded five triple-doubles with points, rebounds and blocks, which are of course rarer than those that include assists.
He scored the first of these goals on October 15, 1988 (PAOK-Panionios) with 18 points, 18 rebounds and 13 blocks.
Two weeks later he “wrote” the second with 20-18-11 against Apollon Patras, on November 19 he followed the third against Sporting (29-19-15), while in the 1990/91 season he added two more: 18 – 14-10 with Peristeri and 19-12-11 with Iraklis.
Vrankovic’s record and the “wow” with Green
Similar triple feats with plugs have also been achieved by Stojan Vrankovic (who is already the record holder in EuroLeague history with 10 in a Fortitudo Bologna-Cibona Zagreb game) with Panathinaikos, Anthony Cook with PAOK, Mike Smrek with Dafni, PJ Brown with Panionios, Efthymis Renzias with the National Youth Team and Antonis Fotsis with the Greens youth team.
On Friday night in Lyon, Fall broke the bank when he nearly followed in Draymond Green’s footsteps and posted a rare triple-double without scoring in double figures.
He reached the final horn with two points, seven rebounds, seven assists and eight blocks, while the Warriors’ cocky forward did so on February 10, 2017 against the Grizzlies with 11 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 steals and just two points.
From 0.8 to 8
Fal had grabbed 14 rebounds in the game against Red Star while he dished out seven assists in the game against Baskonia, so there is no news here…
The wave was caused by the eight caps, because on the one hand there are a lot of them and on the other hand the so-called do not have a big problem with davtes.
Before the game with Villerban, he had taken 12 shots in 14 games, and suddenly he flashed and thundered from a 0.8 average to eight!
What is the key quality a good blocker should have?
The cap for Moretti, the timing and the caps
Instead of answering, I’ll give the floor to a specialist and expert, none other than Panagiotis Fasoulas, who, among other things, scored the most decisive international match in the history of Olympiacos!
I am referring to the match against Paolo Moretti in the third game of the European Champions Cup playoff series in the 10993/94 season, thanks to which Piraeus qualified for the Final 4 in Tel Aviv.
“Everything is a question of timing“he explained to me when I asked him how he cultivated and developed his art.
“You need to know and understand where, when and how to jump to block the opponent’s shot. In addition to this sense of space and time, speed of movement and long arms also play a role. I did the caps and even covered the ball so we could go straight to attack” explains Fasoulas, who is already drawing the moral lesson of the story…
“Attack requires talent, but defense depends on will.”
The spider web
Last but not least, this desire flowed from the… gums of Fasoula, who went out and trapped his opponents in the spider’s web from which no one could escape.
From his appearance in the early 80s until his retirement in 1999, he reduced defense not only to a science, but to a spectacular spectacle!
Source: sport 24
I am a writer at Sportish, where I mainly cover sports news. I’ve also written for The Guardian and ESPN Brasil, and my work has been featured on NBC Sports, SI.com and more. Before working in journalism, I was an athlete: I played football for Colgate University and competed in the US Open Cross Country Championships.
Matias Lessor received hundreds of interesting messages from friends of Panathinaikos AKTOR about his injury and quickly explained what the situation is.
Matias Lessor’s injury was the only black mark in the game against Armani Milano. For this very reason, the people of Panathinaikos AKTOR didn’t enjoy it as much as they would have liked. At least until they received the results of the sports high school exams.
The day after the game, it became clear that the problem was not serious. However, Matias Lessor explained in detail how he feels after his injury and thanked everyone for their interest.
Matias Lesor’s message in detail:
“Thank you everyone for your lovely messages and your interest. I’m feeling much better. It just hurts, but I’m fine“.
Source: sport 24
I am a writer at Sportish, where I mainly cover sports news. I’ve also written for The Guardian and ESPN Brasil, and my work has been featured on NBC Sports, SI.com and more. Before working in journalism, I was an athlete: I played football for Colgate University and competed in the US Open Cross Country Championships.
End of alert for Matias Lesor at Panathinaikos AKTOR. The French center has a bad back due to the injury and will miss tomorrow’s (December 24th) game against Prometheus in Patras (20:15, ERT3 and LIVE on Sportish), but his tests were clear.
Matias Lesor will play in tomorrow’s (December 24th) away game of Panathinaikos AKTOR against Prometheus (8:15 p.m., 3 a.m. and LIVE from Sportish) on matchday 11 of the Stoiximan Basket League due to the lower back injury he sustained in this game , do not compete Armani Milano. But he escaped the worst.
The French center was tested immediately after the return of the “Greens” from Milan, who were “clean”. In other words, they didn’t show that the bone was broken in the middle – which everyone feared when they saw the Frenchman slaughtered on the ground. But Lesor is still in pain, ruling him out of the game against Prometheus and considered doubtful for next week’s EuroLeague game against Red Star.
With Lesor out, Oleg Balcherovski, Kostas Antetokounmpo and Dinos Mitoglou will fill the center position in the game against Prometheus.
Source: sport 24
I am a writer at Sportish, where I mainly cover sports news. I’ve also written for The Guardian and ESPN Brasil, and my work has been featured on NBC Sports, SI.com and more. Before working in journalism, I was an athlete: I played football for Colgate University and competed in the US Open Cross Country Championships.
-
Ligue 13 years agoRenato Sanchez signed in Paris for five years
-
Europa League4 years agoIn transfer alert at Olympiakos for additions and concessions
-
Europa League4 years agoFenerbahce – Eintracht 1: 1: The Germans took 1st place in the Olympiacos group
-
Europa League4 years agoWithout Nainggolan and Samata, the 11th team from Antwerp
-
Europa League4 years agoEuropa League
-
Europa League4 years agoAtalanta announced the acquisition of Boga
-
Europa League4 years agoFears that Zapata will be out for 4 months
-
Premier League4 years agoExcept for the rest of January, Sean was injured