Olympiacos survived a back-and-forth battle in Kaunas to secure an important victory on Tuesday’s makeup game vs Zalgiris.
The Reds won their fifth of their last six games and bounced back from a surprising defeat at the hands of ALBA Berlin.
The Greek giants finished the game playing in high intensity on both ends of the floor as they got some separation due to a 2-11 start early in the fourth quarter.
Olympiacos returned to its best defensive form after allowing 90 points last week. Zalgiris scored only 14 points in the fourth quarter as Olympiacos took advantage of second chance points to put extra pressure in its opponents’ defense.
The Reds netted 10 second-chance points alone in the fourth quarter when they managed to pull away. Giorgos Bartzokas’ team finished the game with 22.
The visitors had 13 offensive rebounds, while they forced 16 turnovers for Zalgiris, which was coming off four wins in the last five games, including a victory over the EuroLeague leaders FC Barcelona.
Hassan Martin and Moustapha Fall punished Zalgiris inside as they snatched five offensive rebounds and four, respectively.
“The biggest thing today was to be physical with them. They are really good at home. They’re a physical team,” Olympiacos’ center Hassan Martin told reporters after the game.
“We just had to come out with a lot of energy. And in the fourth quarter, we pulled away. We made shots. We were playing with excitement and we got the win.”
The Greek side had to overcome Zalgirio Arena’s atmosphere to snatch an important win and maintain a top-three push. They remained fourth in the league with a 17-10 record (16-8 without the Russian teams).
Kostas Sloukas and co. will return to EuroLeague action Thursday to face Greek League rivals Panathinaikos at Peace and Friendship Stadium.
“We are playing against teams that don’t have chances for the playoffs but they still have good players, they still have a good team and coaches. EuroLeague is always like this. We have the pressure.
We need to adjust to this—playing with pressure. If we want to have a good spot in the standings, we need to play under pressure,” head coach Giorgos Bartzokas said.
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