The Red Star punishes Olympiacos’ many mistakes

Olympiacos have not (yet) succeeded against the Red Star, knowing that they lost at SEF 72-76. The “Red-Whites” underperformed for the third straight EuroLeague season, suffering a heartbreaking home defeat in an attempt to advance to the playoffs.

Olympiacos was a step behind in defense and attack. For the third week in a row he was out of rhythm, contracting the same illnesses and paying for it. But how did he get there?

Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes and surprises

Olympiacos has been making mistakes for three weeks. Not coincidentally, his three worst performances in this area come in the last three games (all defeats): 16 with Fenerbahce, 15 with Maccabi and yesterday (27/1) 17 errors with the Red Star, which hit them ‘Red-White’ ” where he has been hit by his two previous opponents: in the faults and in the open field.

According to InStat Scout, a few weeks ago Fenerbahce scored 29 points from Olympiacos’ mistakes, while they scored 24 points in upset situations (it’s not 53 in total, as a mistake often leads to an upset). Last week Maccabi scored 18 points from Olympiacos errors and 13 from surprises. Yesterday (27.1.) Red Star scored 12 points from Olympiacos mistakes and a total of 17 points from surprise situations.

What is really remarkable? Serbs have 7.1 possessions in upset situations this season and score 8.7 points per game. At Olympiakos, her 17 points came in 12 possessions. Traditionally, the ‘Red-Whites’ from Belgrade ran more than usual because they knew it would harm George Bartzokas’ team.

Aiming at Dorsey and freezing Olympiakos

In the individual elements of the game, the Serbs followed a certain logic on both sides of the floor. A logic that would throw Olympiakos even more out of rhythm.

On defense, Red Star’s approach was specific and perfectly tailored to Tyler Dorsey. The Serbs made it clear from the start that they would not be comfortable with the foreign guard. When he was off the ball they tagged him overplay (they didn’t let him take the ball).

When he took the ball and tried to set the screen from 45 degrees, the logic was clear: they played “ICE”, that is, they did not want to let him take the screen and sent him to the sidelines, reducing his opportunities . In general, the Serbs played this defense at 45 degrees in the Olympiakos pick and roll. But while Sloukas and Wokap sometimes managed to find the solution – mainly because they were more aggressive than usual and surprised the Serbs – Dorsey never got into the rhythm of the fight because he didn’t adapt.

The Red Star had something simple in mind: He would force the Olympic guards to do things they weren’t comfortable with. So they put Sluka and Wokap in the logic to be more aggressive – because they’re better as creators – but Dorsey in the logic that if his instinct is to execute, he has to create something. In the aftermath, despite outbursts from Sluka and Wokap, the Serbs’ decision proves the right one after Dorsey – for another game – showed his problem when the defense focused on him, pressuring him and forcing him to think more about the decisions to think .of.

Dobrich and Kalinic did the damage

The Serbs had a solid defensive plan and decided to hit Olympiakos in a certain way on the other side of the ground when the pace dropped and they couldn’t run. There things were clear again, the Serbs hit every possible mistake.

Ognjen Dobric made the start. The left-hander was the one who caused the first problems, hitting the blunder of Olympiacos’ defensive philosophy in the screens away from the ball. In such situations, the “Red-Whites” play “shadow”, i.e. “shadow”, with the defender following the attacker from behind in order not to let him shoot. Dobrich, on the other hand, is left-handed, he can put the ball on the ground and it came out of the screens from the right. With Olympiakos playing like this, the Serb had free left aisle, in his strong hand, giving Dobric the opportunity to either execute – which he did initially – or create an imbalance in Olympiakos’ defense and start a passing game that eventually led to a free kick from one of his teammates.

The two photos – from the same phase – show what happened:

In the first photo, Dobrich leaves the screen, followed by Dorsey.

In the second, Dobric has already taken the ball and goes to the basket – where he finally scored.

As in the game in Belgrade, Nikola Kalinic caused the big damage for Olympiacos alongside Dobric. The Serbian forward played in both forward positions and was free due to the absence of Costas Papanikolaou. When he played as a small forward, he posted and played or played for his teammates, with 12 points and 4 assists (of which 9 points came). When he played as a power forward (mainly in the fourth period), he attacked from the outside in, hitting the slowest legs of the Olympiacos great.

A very bad moon

Olympiacos is not doing well. It has no rhythm. The period of his inactivity because of the coronavirus cases was an excuse – absolutely respected – in the game against Fenerbahce, possibly also against Maccabi. But not with the Red Star. One can stand in the absence of McKissick, Papanikolaou and Printezis and say that Dobrich and Kalinic might not have had as much space had the front two played. At some point, however, the excuses end.

Olympiakos was the one who opted for a small squad to have everyone active with the result that every absence costs money. Olympiakos was the one who decided not to have greatness in the small forward position behind Costas Papanikolaou. Olympiakos is the one who now has an even “tighter” rotation in the senior positions, with Vezenkov and Fal pulling almost the entire paddle, Martin sometimes providing some solutions, (absent with the Red Star) Printezis playing 10 minutes at most and Jean-Charles and Eisy are essentially sidelined.

Of course, Olympiacos didn’t forget about basketball. It’s still the team that played charming basketball in the first half of the season. Logic says it will eventually get back on track. The shots coming in, Dorsey’s deformation phase goes away, Fal finding his rhythm and being better fed, finding the balance in defense and offense. The point, though, is that margins are tightening now. The loss with the Red Star hurts Olympiacos a lot, which needs to be covered somewhere far away from SEF. The situation is reversible. But in order not to become irreversible, everyone has to stick together. Immediately.