Euroleague
day 33That's how it was
Olympiacos
73 66
Finalized
barca
Barça lived in Piraeus between competitive sufficiency and mental dosage.
And the voracity of Olympiacos ended up doubling the pulse of the azulgrana (73-66) who took more than the necessary nap in the third quarter (18-8).
The Greek team, immersed in the fight for second place in the Euroleague, imposed its greatest toughness against Jasikevicius' team who, with the leadership assured and with nothing at stake beyond honor, dosed energy and minutes (no player reached the twenty).
McKissic and Vezenkov led the proud Olympiacos charge, which ended the regular season with a victory that forced Madrid to beat Bayern on Friday at the Palace on the last day to reach second place in the standings.
A square that,
a priori
, gives them a better match in the quarterfinal tie.
This is the classification of the Euroleague
The culé superiority was accredited in the staging, but it melted before the greater push of Olympiacos.
Barça was firm and only conceded two baskets in the first five minutes to Olympiacos.
Calathes and Mirotic put together a 4-12 run that was also joined by youth squad Michael Caicedo, 18, a surprise in Jasikevicus' quintet after his notable performance against Fenerbahçe last week at the Palau.
However, after the initial onslaught, the visitors took a sigh of self-indulgence and, with rotations starting, Olympiacos took the opportunity to start scoring three-pointers to make up for lost time.
Dorsey and Vezenkov took a bite out of Barca's income, but the Greek reaction did not alter Jasikevicius's roadmap.
With the first place in the regular league assured, the Barça coach measured the minutes of his players to the millimeter, with unprecedented quintets (Exum, Kuric, Hayes, Sergi Martínez and Smits) and a lot of rest for the first swords, after a claustrophobic and exhausting month of March, with 13 games in 29 days.
A marathon settled with only three defeats for the Catalans, those suffered in Valencia (86-76), Kaunas (91-84) and Badalona (83-72) on Sunday.
A solvency fundamentally based on the strength shown at the Palau, where Barça has not lost since January 11.
That day, Jasikevicius' team gave up their first and only loss at home in the Euroleague, against Armani Milan (73-75).
MORE INFORMATION
Mirotic and Abrines endorse Barça's vigor in the Euroleague
Precisely against Armani, and also against Madrid, Olympiacos competed to share places two, three and four in the classification.
All with the home field advantage assured, but with more or less reachable horizons depending on the rivals in the quarterfinals.
A puzzle with the champion, the Efes of Micic and Larkin, as an ogre to avoid for everyone.
If they do not fail against Alba, Bayern and Red Star, the Turkish team will be fifth and will face fourth in the table.
And from that tie between fourth and fifth would come Barça's rival in the hypothetical semifinal of the Final Four.
Although now the Catalans' sights are set on the candidates to finish eighth (Monaco and Bayern the main ones).
A first stretch of the rise that Barça will complete next Thursday against Maccabi at the Palau, before facing the decisive stretch of the course with their homework ahead of schedule.
In Piraeus, Jasikevicius's board was more of a dosage than a test bench.
Enough to send against Olympiacos for many minutes, but not to finish the job.
Sanli and Abrines shared the stewardship in the valley sections and Calathes starred in the most brilliant minutes for Barça.
Opposite, McKissic, Jean-Charles and Dorsey rowed, but the tremendous culé superiority in rebounding (10-24 at halftime; five of them by Nigerian James Nnaji, 17 years old) translated into enough clearance on the scoreboard (33- 40, m. 20).
A piggy bank that Calathes underpinned with a triple of nine meters.
However, after the break, Barça snoozed more than necessary (only three baskets and a free throw scored in nine minutes) and, although the erratic sequence from the free throw slowed down the Greek rearmament, the physical and mental toughness of Olympiacos matched finally the pulse (48-47, after a partial of 15-7).
In the middle of the culé drowsiness there was only one more free kick from Sanli to add to the statistics, while McKissic boosted the Greek confidence with another triple.
Laprovittola tried to wake up his team in an unequal fight of intensities and biorhythms, but McKissic opposed the hero of the night with a powerful mate.
Jasikevicius recovered the gala line-up (Calathes, Lapro, Kuric, Mirotic and Sanli) to fight for the victory,
but a Walkup 3-pointer and a Papanikolau dance in the paint gave Olympiacos just enough of a margin to grab the prize.
A triumph that leaves Madrid with no room for manoeuvre.
Whites only need to win to be second.
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