2023-05-19 19:31:02
Everything changed in five minutes. Five minutes at the start of the third quarter during which Monaco was silenced by a revived Olympiakos team. 300 seconds that were fatal to the Roca Team and forced them to say goodbye to a final victory in this Euroleague. Big favorites of this Final Four in Lithuania, the Greeks will face the winner of the other semi-final between Real Madrid and Barcelona scheduled for this Friday evening.
The game: experience made the difference
The dream only lasted twenty minutes. A half during which Monaco jostled Olympiakos and believed they could create the feat in a room totally committed to the cause of the Greeks. Very tense, the players of Piraeus had all the trouble in the world to get into their game. Clumsy and short of ideas, they missed several very easy baskets and suffered from the oppressive defense of Monaco.
This scenario lasted two quarters. Carried by Mike James, author of two magnificent three-point bombs, and by the offensive rebounds of Jordan Loyd, the Monegasques continued to increase their lead, to bring it to twelve points when returning to the locker room (41- 29).
We don’t yet know what was said between the four walls of the Greek locker room, but it worked perfectly. Returning with very different intentions, Sasha Vezenkov’s teammates, accustomed to these great European games, inflicted a scathing 14-0 on the Monegasques. Completely stunned, the Roca Team players did not find the solutions to stay in the game, scoring a single small basket, on the counter-attack, in this third quarter concluded with an improbable score of 27-2 in favor of Olympiakos.
Despite a slight burst of pride, Sasa Obradovic’s players never scared the Greeks at the end of the match, the difference was already far too great. The Monegasques finally bow logically and thus miss a golden opportunity to reach the Euroleague final for the first time in their history. “We really weren’t the same as a team in the second half, regretted the Serbian coach after the match. I do not know what happened. »
Player: Sasha Vezenkov
The MVP of the Euroleague regular season hid for a long time, but it was finally he who sounded the revolt. With his friend Kostas Papanikolaou, they scored 17 of the 27 Greek points in the third quarter (9 for Vezenkov and 8 for Papanikolaou). Top scorer of the season, with 17.2 points on average, the Bulgarian completely disarmed the Monegasques, unable to physically resist his offensives and to isolate him from the passes of the playing master Kostas Sloukas. The strong winger even finished as the game’s top scorer with 19 points.
The number: 2
With only two points scored, for 27 against, Monaco had a real nightmare in the third quarter. Overwhelmed in defense and unable to find shooting opportunities, the Monegasques completely broke down and let the victory slip away. Prior to this lackluster performance, only four teams had scored just two points in a quarter in Euroleague history. A sad line in the history books.
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