Friday night's game will be an interesting barometer of where the two teams stand in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague hierarchy.
Olympiacos, Barcelona face off after a summer of change
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When Olympiacos Piraeus and FC Barcelona both made it to the 2023 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four, they were led by a pair of MVPs in Sasha Vezenkov and Nikola Mirotic, respectively. Well, a few months on, the 2023 winner of the award, Vezenkov, left for the NBA, while Mirotic – the 2022 MVP – switched Barca for EA7 Emporio Armani Milan.
What does this mean, I hear you ask? The floor is there for a new star to emerge. You just have to look at Olympiacos’s 78-88 overtime win against archrival Panathinaikos Athens to see a new hero for the Reds, as second-year forward Alec Peters earned MVP of the Round honors following a dominant individual performance.
New signings Nikola Milutinov and Nigel Williams-Goss, both of whom are now in their second spells with Olympiacos, also shined at OAKA, as did the ever-reliable Thomas Walkup. There were some mumblings in the European basketball community about whether Georgios Bartzokas’s Olympiacos would be as strong this season, but it was a real statement win that the Reds achieved in Round 1.
One day before, some 1900km away, a new-look Barca featuring recent additions Willy Hernangomez, Dario Brizuela and Jabari Parker got off to winning ways by defeating Anadolu Efes Istanbul 91-74 at Palau Blaugrana. There was some pessimism about the Blaugrana’s chances heading into this EuroLeague season, having said goodbye to the likes of Mirotic and Cory Higgins, as well as head coach Saras Jasikevicius, but new boss Roger Grimau saw his team get off to the perfect start.
Hernangomez particularly stood out by scoring 18 points in just over 16 minutes on the floor, while fellow big man Jan Vesely also added 16 points. If Barca can find a way to get the EuroBasket 2022 MVP and the 2019 EuroLeague MVP to coexist, as was the case in Round 1 against Efes, it could spell trouble for the rest of the EuroLeague. Nico Laprovittola was another player that impressed for Barca last week, finishing with 13 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists.
Injury news
Barca confirmed on Thursday that young guard Michael Caicedo has fractured the metatarsal in his right foot, so he will be unavailable for Friday night’s meeting at Peace and Friendship Stadium. Aside from him, though, the Blaugrana have a full squad to choose from.
It is quite a different picture at Olympiacos, however, as Luke Sikma and Shaquielle McKissic – both of whom featured in the Greek derby in Round 1 – will be out for at least a couple of weeks, while Nigel Williams-Goss is also out after making his second debut for the club last week. The one positive bit of news for the Reds is that Moustapha Fall is back, meaning Milutinov will not have as big a burden on his shoulders.
Where the game could be won/lost
In the absence of McKissic and Williams-Goss, Olympiacos is likely to give heavy minutes to Walkup, who is likely to be partnered in the backcourt by Isaiah Canaan. Coming off the bench will be Giannoulis Larentzakis, but he could be accompanied by Ignas Brazdeikis, who would make his Olympiacos debut if he takes to the floor in Round 2.
It will be curious to see how Barca’s guards – Laprovittola, Tomas Satoransky, Rokas Jokubaitis and Dario Brizuela – do up against their counterparts in red, but whichever backcourt comes out on top may be one of the keys to the game.
Then, at center, it will be fascinating to see how Olympiacos’s duo of Milutinov and Fall do when faced with Hernangomez and Vesely. It feels a bit like an old-school game with so many elite big men on the floor, but this is another area in which the more dominant unit will likely end up on the winning side.
There are plenty of fun storylines to follow all over the court, so make sure to tune in for Olympiacos vs. Barcelona from 20:15 CET – it should be a lot of fun.