Historic clubs, great coaches, playoff atmosphere. It could be a special night!
Partizan vs. Olympiacos checks all the boxes for great basketball drama
Let’s get this out of the way. Yes, there are personal connections between these teams. Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade’s Kevin Punter and Zach LeDay both made their EuroLeague debuts with Olympiacos Piraeus. Olympiacos point guard Nigel Williams-Goss made his professional debut with Partizan, Filip Petrusev played for the Partizan juniors and Nikola Milutinov signed there as a teenager.
Whether or not all those players are fit this week is beside the point because those are simply interesting tidbits, but not what this game is all about. This game will be great because it is essentially a must-win playoff game in March.
How so? The hosts are one of three teams with 14-17 records vying for 10th place in the standings and the final ticket to the Play-In Showdown. A loss could prove fatal. The Partizan faithful are well aware of the importance and the atmosphere at Stark Arena will surely reflect that.
Olympiacos, meanwhile, entered the week with the potential to already clinch a playoff berth, but that hope was dashed when Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv won on Wednesday. Still, the Reds control their destiny in the race for a top-six regular-season finish, which would be worth an automatic playoff bid without the drama of the Play-In Showdown. Maccabi’s win put more pressure on the Reds, knowing a loss could open the door for the Israeli champs to overtake Olympiacos at the end.
Add to that the fact that due to the long-standing bond between the fans of Olympiacos and Partizan's archrival Crvena Zvezda Merdianbet Belgrade, the diehard Grobari at the arena will bring their A-game to disrupt the visitors.
Indeed, a playoff atmosphere can be expected and both teams have players and coaches worthy of the bright stage.
For my proverbial money, this game hinges on the play of the frontcourts and the stats bear this out. Partizan leads the league in two-point shooting (58.7%) thanks to players like Bruno Caboclo (70.9% 2FG) and Frank Kaminsky (64.2%), among others. Partizan has also seen a league-low 1.8 of its shots blocked per game.
Meanwhile, Olympiacos is second in the league in opponents’ two-point accuracy at 51.9% and ranks fourth with 2.8 blocks per game.
There are further wrinkles to this frontcourt feast. A staple of Coach Zeljko Obradovic’s offense is three-point shooting from the bigs and few are better than Caboclo (51.2% 3FG) and Kaminsky (43.1%). One of those who is better is of course Olympiacos’s Alec Peters, whose career 45.4% conversion rate from deep is the sixth-best in EuroLeague history.
And this introduces the tactical battle. Olympiacos has a top-tier defense, but Obradovic’s men will try to find weaknesses. Can Peters stop Caboclo or Kaminsky on the blocks? If Partizan spreads the floor with its bigs, can its perimeter defenders such as Thomas Walkup, Shaq McKissic and Kostas Papanikolaou contain Punter and PJ Dozier in one-on-one situations?
If they can, Olympiacos will hold the keys to victory in its pocket. But if not, Coach Georgios Bartzokas will find himself matching wits with Obradovic again. If the hosts are able to penetrate the Reds’ venerable defense – Olympiacos’s 74.7 points allowed per game are the best in the league, Bartzokas will find himself in the never-ending search for the perfect lineup that can outscore Partizan and make life difficult at the other end.
When this happens, we are reminded why we love this game. Here is the checklist.
- Two historic clubs
- Packed Stark Arena
- Multiple Gomelskiy Coach of the Year winners
- Late in the season
- Playoff position at stake
Check ‘em all. And look forward to a great game.