Olympiacos awakens Barça from the European dream
Those from Piraeus win the direct duel for the head against a bad Barça
BARCELONA, 7 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça lost this Tuesday on the Olympiacos track (77-70) the direct duel between two of the ‘co-leaders’ of the Euroleague, on a night in which those from Piraeus woke the blaugrana from their sleep, breaking the streak ‘culer’ based on blows from old men known as Sasha Vezenkov.
The blaugrana lost a pulse that they had on their side until just before the break, when a huge offensive crisis in the second quarter allowed Olympiacos to go from 11-22 to 23-22 with a 12-0 run. That’s where the game changed, as the Greeks woke up and believed in themselves after a bad start.
The opposite happened to Barça, and it sank from that moment on. He started with Nikola Mirotic’s hot dolls, but his fire faded and he found himself alone. And even though Cory Higgins tried to be his squire early in the fourth quarter, his magic was also short-lived. Jasikevicius’ men lacked points in Piraeus, and they paid for it with the defeat against a direct rival.
And that Barça started strong, with a +10 (8-18) after a basket from Laprovittola. Things were going well for Barça in attack and in defense they could control the slow local offense. But things changed in that fateful second set (18-7) when no Blaugrana player found their way to the rival basket. And playing to a low score (29-27) at halftime did not help the ‘culers’ this time.
There will be no co-leadership nor will there be a mathematical ticket to the ‘Playoffs’ after this defeat, with which Barça put an end to their good winning streak, which was five in a row. And this week they will visit Fenerbahçe, another important rival. Before Olympiacos, the previous harangue of the Lithuanian coach did not work, who will have to change the chip to his players.
And it is that on a night in which Sasha Vezenkov stayed at a PIR of 6 –albeit with 13 points– and Kostas Sloukas at 2 PIR points, Barça was unable to win. He was unable to take advantage of the discreet match between two of Olympiacos’ stars. But it is that at Barça only Nikola Mirotic, with 19 points, or Nicolás Laprovittola, with 15, were successful on the Peace and Friendship track.
The ex-Blaugrana Vezenkov woke up in the last quarter to sentence his former team, accompanied by a Thomas Walkup who was under the orders of Sarunas Jasikevicius at Zalgiris but who now tormented his former coach following the orders of Georgios Bartzokas, a coach who went through Barça with more pain than glory and that he continues to exact his revenge, as he already did in the Palau in the first round.
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: OLYMPIACOS, 77 – BARÇA, 70 (29-27, at halftime).
–EQUIPMENT.
OLYMPICS: Canaan (-), Walkup (6), Papanikolaou (8), Vezenkov (13) and Fall (5) –starting quintet–; Larentzakis (14), Sloukas (3), Peters (6), Black (6) and McKissic (16).
BARÇA: Laprovittola 15(), Satoransky (1), Kalinic (8), Mirotic (19) and Sanli (13) –starting five–; Da Silva (-), Vesely (2), Abrines (-), Higgins (10) and Jokubaitis (2).
— PARTIALS: 11-20, 18-7, 21-18 and 27-25.
–REFEREES: Belosevic, Difallah and Petek. They eliminated Abrines at Barça.
–PABELLÓN: Peace And Friendship Stadium.