The pair of veteran guards looked ahead after making their team's injury troubles seem like no big deal.
McKissic, Walkup: Blowout in Kaunas just the beginning for Reds
![McKissic, Walkup: Blowout in Kaunas just the beginning for Reds](https://media-cdn.incrowdsports.com/39682259-6016-4bbb-9720-482b43e98046.jpg?crop=975%3A549%3Anowe%3A164%3A0)
The news before Olympiacos Piraeus went to Lithuania in hopes of breaking a four-game home winning streak by Zalgiris Kaunas was that almost half of its backcourt didn't make the flight.
Nigel Williams-Goss, Giannoulis Larentzakis and Naz Mitrou-Long were all injured, which left it for the other guards to step up.
The news after Olympiacos throttled their hosts 76-95 was that the Reds are not only deep, but they are extremely confident looking toward the rest of the playoffs race.
"I told the guys before the game that we should be trying to win all eight games left; there's no reason we can't," Shaquielle McKissic said after his team's tour de force before 15,000 disappointed Zalgiris fans. "I'm just trying to send a message to the EuroLeague."
McKissic and his partner in crime on Friday, staring point guard Thomas Walkup, had plenty of reason to feel good about the message they were sending.
Walkup posted his career high with 22 points, added a game-high 7 assists and helped keep the wraps on Zalgiris star Keenan Evans. McKissic posted his season high with 20 points off the bench.
Both made 5 of 5 two-point shots as Olympiacos had its second-best shooting rate inside the arc in the entire century, making 25 of 32 shots, or 78.1%. That also ranks 18th on any given night for any club since 2000.
So thorough was the Reds' march on Kaunas that the turnaround came on the last play of the first half, courtesy of McKissic. With 4.8 seconds left until halftime and the score tied 39-39, McKissic took the ball out of bounds at the far end of the court, as per the instructions of head coach Georgios Bartzokas. He got a pass back immediately and raced through the entire Zalgiris defense to dunk before the half ended. The game was never the same after that.
"That play at the end of the first half was unbelievable," Walkup said. "One guy in the EuroLeague can make a play like this, and he's on our team. Helluva game, super happy for him. Shaq's back."
Like his backcourt mate, Walkup had a message to send, too.
"It's very important that we have an very experienced group that's been together for some time," he said. "At this point of the season, after the little break, it was super important to come back and refocus. These are the sort of games that champions find the ways to win. Really proud of our group today and we have to keep building. It doesn't stop here."