Olympiacos did it again. Olympiacos cruised past the Palau Blaugrana 63-59 in Game 5, knocking off Barcelona and earning their fourth straight ticket to the Final Four in Berlin. In a match that was a real dogfight. In a match that left the lions of Piraeus standing.
A series that will be remembered for many years and for many different reasons, a 20-minute series between two extremely tough teams, ended on Wednesday night (8/5) with Olympiakos beating the Palau Blaugrana 63-59 and dropping on the canvas Barcelona, to punch his ticket to the Final Four in Berlin (May 24-26).
The Lions of Piraeus have done it again. Giorgos Bartzokas’ Lions took the baton from Fenerbahce and became only the second team to break in Game 5.
Ο MVP
It was Shaquille McKissic who ignited the spark in the final period, scoring 9 of his 12 points in that span to give the Reds and Whites that spark to finish the job.
The weak link
Nikola Kalinic played a really bad game, missing 19’07” of participation (0/4 two-pointers, 0/3 three-pointers) to write -9 in the ranking.
The statistic that stood out
Barcelona closed the first period with six steals, with six mistakes by Olympiacos, who scored three baskets in 14 shots. At halftime the Piraeus had now limited the possessions they were wasting, together both teams had 3/24 three-pointers. Finally, the match ended with the Piraeus having 16/32 two-pointers, 6/23 three-pointers, 13/24 shots, while the Blaugrana had 18/38 two-pointers, 4/26 three-pointers, 11/13 shots. 10-4 the points in surprise, 17-13 the points from opponent’s mistakes and 7-7 the second chance points.
Series results
- Game 1: Barcelona – Olympiacos 75-77
- Game 2: Barcelona – Olympiacos 77-69
- Game 3: Olympiacos – Barcelona 80-82 (overtime)
- Game 4: Olympiacos – Barcelona 92-58
- Game 5: Barcelona – Olympiacos 59-63
The race
With its classic five (Walkap, Kanan, Papanikolaou, Peters, Fal) entered the match Olympiacos, which did not find good shots in the first minutes, had difficulty breaking the Barcelona defense, but it was equally dynamic. Peters scored the first basket in the 4th minute for 2-2 (!), but Laprovitola found his hand, scored alone for 8-2 and Bartzokas waited for the televised timeout to put Petrusev and Milutinov in the match. The 12-9 of the period flattered the Piraeus who had six errors (six steals by the home team), but even so they were one possession away.
A 6-0 run by Barcelona pushed the lead to nine early in the second period (18-9 at 12′), but again Olympiacos stayed relatively close. The five-seven points were few, but they seemed enough with the way the match had taken, with Kanan being charged with a foul on a three-pointer by Laprovitola (3/3 shots for 25-19) while Bartzokas had drawn with I complain about Lorentzakis on the bench. 27-25 at halftime seemed unimaginable to those who hadn’t watched the previous four games of the series.
Bartzokas opened the second half with Petrusev in the back four, swapped Fal for Milutinov in the 24th minute and saw Walkup persevere and vindicate the long-range shot. The 38-35 in the 26th minute put more pressure on Barcelona, with the match becoming more and more… worse in quality, but more and more fierce. Papanikolaou made a 3-pointer for 40-40 in the 29th minute and that was the score of the third period, which had drained many players from both teams.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter you felt that every basket counted as a double and every point for a basket. Billy scored between three bodies for 45-42 at 32′, Barzokas called a timeout, but at 33′ Petrusev was charged with an unsportsmanlike foul, Laprovitola made the shots for 47-42 and the hosts got a breather again. And as it had done time and time again, Olympiacos found solutions, reduced to a basket (47-45) with a two-pointer by Williams-Goss and went ahead (49-47) with a three-pointer by McKissick.
And from there on, war. McKissick made a three-pointer for 49-52 and a big basket for 49-54 soon after. Kostas Papanikolaou added another big 3-pointer for 49-57 with 2’25” on the clock. Barcelona found five combined points with Abrines and Vesely to cut it to 54-57 with 72″ left. Nikola Milutinov scored for 54-59 with 17″ on the clock, Abrines scored for 56-59 2″ later, and Kanan made two shots for 56-61. Papanikolaou added two more shots and sealed the result at 39’53”.
THE REFEREES: Radovic, Javor, Nikolic
THE DECADES: 12-9, 27-25, 40-40, 59-63
BARCELONA (Grimeau): Da Silva, Vesely 6 (4 turnovers), Rubio 6 (4 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals, 2 turnovers), Kalinic (0/7 shooting), Satoranski 2 (2/2 shots, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 1 error), Hernangomet 9, Laprovitola 17 (2/7 3-pointers, 7 rebounds, 4 assists), Abrines 13 (2), Parker 4 (0/7 3-pointers), Yokubaitis 2.
OLYMPIAKOS (Bartzokas): Walkup 3 (1/6 three-pointers), Williams-Goss 8 (4 assists, 6 turnovers), Wright 2, Kanan 6 (1/7 shots, 4/5 shots), Larentzakis, Fal (0/4 shots, 5 rebounds), Papanikolaou 11 (3/6 3-pointers), Peters 6, Petrusev 5 (1/4 2-pointers, 3/4 shots), Milutinov 10 (10 rebounds), McKissick 12 (2).
Barcelona’s team stats: 18/38 2-pointers, 4/26 3-pointers, 11/13 shots, 37 rebounds (25 defensive + 12 offensive), 17 assists, 12 steals, 13 turnovers, 2 blocks.
Olympiacos’ team stats: 16/32 2-pointers, 6/23 3-pointers, 13/24 shots, 43 rebounds (31 defensive + 12 offensive), 15 assists, 7 steals, 16 fouls, 3 blocks.