Maccabi injured Olympiakos on the pick and roll, disrupting his mind in attack

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.