The Frenchman made two crucial steals in the fourth quarter and netted a season-high 18 points in the Reds' home victory
Olympiacos's second unit, Evan Fournier combine to knock out Paris
Informes de partidos
3 Min lectura
Regular Season
Round 12 of 38
Regular Season
Olympiacos PiraeusOLY
9886
Paris BasketballPBB
Overview
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The first quarter on Friday night was one to forget for Olympiacos Piraeus. Paris Basketball hit the ground running, with Justin Robinson firing on all cylinders by going 5 for 6 from deep – a club record for the most threes made by a player in one quarter.
Olympiacos’s big guns struggled to find their range as the French side took a 21-29 lead into the second quarter. The Reds needed to find a spark and that came from the bench, as the team’s second unit stepped up on both ends of the floor.
Four straight points by Alec Peters were followed by eight from Tyson Ward before Kostas Papanikolaou hit a triple to bring Olympiacos within 37-38. Then, Peters, Ward and Donta Hall netted four points apiece, with the hosts opening a 52-44 lead. In fact, Ward scored all 12 of his points in the second quarter, with Olympiacos’s bench outscoring the starters 37-21 in the first half.
The Greek side tightened up its defense as Ward, Hall and Papanikolaou provided the physicality. Having made the most of its hustle on the defensive end, it scored 18 points off turnovers and held Paris to 20 second-quarter points.
On the offensive end, Olympiacos netted a total of 37 points – the third-most scored by the team in a single quarter since 2007-08. It did so by circulating the ball well, finishing the first half with as many as 17 assists and taking a 58-49 advantage into halftime.
“The physicality that we applied in the second quarter was very important to steal balls and find some confidence on the other side of the floor,” head coach Georgios Bartzokas noted at halftime.
Paris bounced back in the third quarter and went on a 1-10 run that brought the guests within 72-69. The hosts maintained a narrow lead heading into the fourth, before Robinson’s seventh triple of the game took his tally to a club-record 35 points, cutting the difference to 81-78.
Enter Evan Fournier, who came off the bench and brought some much-needed intensity on both ends of the floor. The Frenchman started by creating open shots, finding Thomas Walkup for a triple. Then, he forced a Robinson turnover before Walkup drew an unsportsmanlike foul on the break.
The Olympiacos guard hit both free throws, with Fournier nailing his fourth three of the night on the next possession. On the other side of the floor, the former NBAer picked up another steal, hitting the floor in transition and netting a layup as Olympiacos went on a 10-0 surge to practically put the game to bed. Fournier ended the clash on a season-high 18 points, having gone 4 for 9 from beyond the arc.
“Evan was really better than the previous games, but we said it was a matter of time to find himself, just to get into his normal shape,” Bartzokas told EuroLeague TV after the game.
With Moustapha Fall sidelined through injury and Tyler Dorsey red-hot in this first stretch of the season, Olympiacos is still figuring out how to operate under these new circumstances. Having grabbed a 98-86 win over Paris on home soil, the Greek side improved its record to 8-4.
Although they have yet to fully convince with their performances, Bartzokas's team currently sits second in the EuroLeague standings behind Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv, which they beat earlier this season.
“We have a different dynamic this year,” Fournier admitted after the game. “We are all trying to help the team the best way we can. We all have to fit in with different roles a little bit. It’s going to take some adjustment from all of us, but I think it all starts with the defense, the energy and the hustle. If you have these things, the offense is going to take care of itself.”
And that’s precisely what happened on Friday night. The second unit brought the energy and hustle from the bench, with Fournier taking the mantle in the fourth quarter to provide the knockout blow.
