The Olympiacos center became the fourth player in competition history to tally 20 points and 20 rebounds in the same game.
Nikola Milutinov stepped up with historic game in Fall’s absence
Nikola Milutinov produced an outstanding performance on Thursday night to lead Olympiacos Piraeus to an 89-72 victory over Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. A couple of days before the game, Olympiacos announced that Moustapha Fall would be out injured for three weeks. This is an important injury blow for the Greek side taking into account that Fall ranks top in two-point accuracy this season at 78.3% and leads all centers with 2.7 assists per game.
Hence, Milutinov got the nod from head coach George Bartzokas, who included the Serbian center in the starting lineup against Maccabi. Morale at Piraeus was anything but high after back-to-back defeats to FC Barcelona and Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain last week.
“It’s difficult when you miss a player like [Fall], because he is one of the key players here,” Milutinov said after the game. “I had to play a little bit more tonight than what I was playing lately and I’m just happy that I helped my team in the best possible way and that we won tonight the way we won.”
The Greek side hit the ground running in the first quarter and outscored a Lorenzo Brown-less Maccabi 26-18. Milutinov shined at both ends of the floor, ending the first half on a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds. Maccabi bounced back in the second quarter and cut the difference to 42-36 at halftime. However, a dominant Olympiacos went on a 12-0 run after the break and managed to secure what has probably been its most convincing victory so far this season.
Milutinov ended the game with a season-high 20 points and a career-high 20 rebounds, 9 of which were offensive boards, for a PIR of 40. These figures mean that he entered a select group of four players who have recorded a 20+20 game in the EuroLeague.
“We had to cover Fall’s absence, as everybody knows how important he is,” Bartzokas said after the game. “So I have to give special credit to Nikola Milutinov who had 20+20. These are huge numbers nowadays in basketball.”
Olympiacos played at a sold-out Peace And Friendship Stadium for yet another time this season, with Milutinov being hailed by fans, who rhythmically chanted his name in the last quarter.
“This is why I came back,” Milutinov laughed when asked how he felt when fans chanted his name. “It’s an amazing feeling. I want to thank the fans. It’s something really unique and this is one of the reasons why I came back to Olympiacos.”
With this home victory, Olympiacos got back to winning ways and improved to a 12-10 record. Fall is expected to be sidelined until early February, which makes Milutinov a key player for Olympiacos in the next few games. Judging from Thursday’s performance in Piraeus, the Olympiacos big man is more than ready to fill Fall’s shoes and prove why he’s considered one of the best centers in the EuroLeague.