Euro League
Maccabi injured Olympiakos on the pick and roll, disrupting his mind in attack
With the help of InStat Scout, Stefanos analyzes Makris Maccabi’s victory over Olympiakos. The ruthless marking of the Fa, Zizic’s dominance and the constant presence of two operators on the ground for the Israelis.
Olympiacos failed against Maccabi. For the second year in a row in the EuroLeague, he had a bad image, which led to him being easily (and) defeated in Israel (84-69) after losing in Turkey to Fenerbahce.
The ‘Red-Whites’ were always a step behind on defense and seemed incoherent in attack, giving Maccabi a fair win. But how did he get there?
Zizic’s party and defense at Pick and Roll
A week ago, Olympiakos played their worst defensive game in the EuroLeague against Fener, conceding 1.18 points per possession. Yesterday (January 21) he was the second worst performer with 1.14 points per possession. And it all started with his troubled defense at Pick and Roll.
The “Red-Whites” are known to generally defend in two ways at pick and roll: “ICE”, ie refusing the umbrella to the ball operator and switching. Maccabi knew this and managed to thwart that plan by constantly tagging Mustafa Fal in a way no other team has done this year.
The Israelis wanted to take the big Olympiakos man out of the limelight, and they did. The speed with which they set the pick and roll at 45 degrees often led to changes at Olympiakos. And this is where the problem began, as Maccabi’s peripherals Ande Zizic (23 points with a 10/12 two points) and Jalen Reynolds (8 points with a 3/8 two points) were constantly “feeding” and hitting every mismatch that existed after InStat Scout scored Maccabi 12 points in 10 post-up situations (1.2 per possession, while Olympiacos conceded 0.76 points per possession before the game).
However, Olympiakos’ main problem is that they conceded a total of 23 points (1.53 points per possession) in 15 pick-and-roll situations, with 13 of those points going to the ball operator (1.63 per possession if Olympiakos managed that 0 .88 received). Points per possession) and another 10 from the big one who rolled in the basket (1.43 per possession if Olympiakos gets 1.03 per possession).
But how do these numbers explain in .. simple… Basketball Greek: Maccabi mercilessly hit Olympiacos’ changes. Since they have two centers that have good post-up play, they “hurt” the “red-whites” near the basket. All of this put pressure on the Olympiakos team, who started to provide help that usually came later than it should. This resulted in poor defensive rotations that gave Maccabi free kicks or Wilbekin and Evans personal phases. The defense collapsed.
The role of Di Bartolomeo
It was September 30, 2021 when John Di Bartolomeo played 22 minutes and seconds in Maccabi’s 69-68 win over Bayern in their EuroLeague debut. Since then he has had 13 other appearances, none of which he has played for more than 15 minutes. Against Olympiakos he played 20 minutes and 35 seconds and had only 3 points with 1/8 shots, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. However, he also had +17 on the +/- system, the fourth highest of his team after those of Kalogiaro (+22), Nanali (+19) and Zizic (+18).
Giannis Sfeiropoulos made a conscious choice: he would play with two players on the floor throughout the game. And he kept that from start to finish, because with the exception of the last 15 seconds of the second period, he always had two of Wilbekin, Evans and Di Bartolomeo on the floor as the game progressed.
The Greece coach wanted three things: to keep Wilbekin in check, choke on the ball, throw Dorsey and Slouka out of rhythm and feed the big ones. The presence of the two pilots made sure of that.
Di Bartolomeo and Evans (14 points and 4 assists) read the game perfectly, allowed Wilbekin to play away from the ball and calm down, and pushed the Olympic Guards so hard that they derailed the Red-Whites’ attack.” One evening However, when ίζiτςiτς…’s party and shots from Wilbekin and Evans drew attention, Di Bartolomeo was one of his team’s key players.
Olympiakos’ attack had no antidote to Maccabi’s energy
Maccabi knew what to do with the attack. However, she knew what she had to do in defense to throw Olympiakos out of rhythm by… taking powder from Fenerbahce and putting pressure on the ‘red-whites’.
The Israelis (and they) clearly wanted to throw Sluka and Dorsey out of rhythm. That’s why they wanted to get the ball out of their hands in the parallel hedge game in the Olympic Peak and Roll. And if Sloukas can analyze an opponent’s defense, Dorsey is still behind at that because as a creator… he suffers. At the same time, all this energy started from one point “playing with the mind” with all the Olympic guards who, instead of looking for the right pass, just rushed to the basket and fell against a wall and made mistakes – which led to surprises , as there was no defensive balance.
The “Red-Whites” read the game correctly in the first half. However, they lost their self-control in the second half. There was no extra pass, there was no proper “feeding” in Fal. They found no way to upset Maccabi’s defensive balance and rotation as the “people’s team” immediately sent help to the post from the weak side. The Olympiacos players either didn’t make the extra pass or it was too late and made a mistake.
Much can be said about the image of Giorgos Bartzokas’ team, which still doesn’t seem to have fully recovered from the coronavirus-related abstention (although Sakil McKissick has denied any blame) and has lost its automation. Still, of course, there’s no justification for Sasha Vezenkov (Olympiacos’ second most gifted attacking player) to end a game with 6 shots that he and his teammates are responsible for.
If you look at the stats of the game you can see that after Tyler Dorsey (4/7 shots), Olympiacos has seven players who have fired 4-6 shots. This theoretically shows balance and στην democracy in attack. As hard as it sounds, when attacking a basketball team, there can be no democracy, the attack, but… hierarchy. And that wasn’t seen in the last two games.
Immediate reorganization
Olympiacos is in a special position. His good start has given him a sense of security but his back-to-back defeats – and more importantly his image – against Fenerbahce and Maccabi show something needs to change. They show Olympiacos need to flip the switch again.
It’s clear that Olympiacos wasn’t able to play the whole season like they did at the beginning. It made sense that a belly was coming. But the reaction must come gradually. The “red and white” are now called upon to show character. Otherwise it will be difficult.
Source: sport24
Jessica Martinez is an author at Sportish, a publication dedicated to sports news and analysis. She covers various topics related to sports and provides insightful commentary on the latest developments in the world of sports.
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.
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