Georgios Bartzokas’s squad refused to down tools in Round 34
Red-hot Olympiacos revving up for playoffs
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Regular Season
Round 34 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Friday’s regular-season finale between Olympiacos Piraeus and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul was supposed to be a relatively meaningless affair, conducted between two teams who could have been forgiven for already having one eye on the playoffs.
After all, only the dubious prize of fifth place was up for grabs, with Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens and AS Monaco wrapping up the two remaining home-court advantage slots the previous night.
But if there was any sense of anti-climax and a suggestion of an evening spent going through the motions to save energy for the upcoming postseason action, nobody told the players.
An intensely competitive game featuring 13 lead changes ended up going the distance – and then some – before Olympiacos eventually came away with an 84-81 victory after overtime, sealing fifth place and setting up a playoff showdown with FC Barcelona.
Olympiacos head coach Georgios Bartzokas made the astute observation that such fierce commitment to victory, even in a relatively unimportant game, sums up the brutal nature of the competition.
“It was a very tough game, very representative of what the [Turkish Airlines] EuroLeague is," he said. “There's no easy game at any time in the season. It’s a battle everywhere.”
A serious performance by Olympiacos
The win also underlined that Olympiacos is ready for the playoffs in every way: mentally, with 10 wins out of the last 11 games, and physically, with Bartzokas granted the rare luxury of choice approaching the end of a season plagued by injury problems.
The sight of Nikola Milutinov returning to the floor for the first time since Round 22 was especially welcome. The big man appeared during the second quarter and although he only spent 4:27 minutes in the game, Milutinov used that time to show he’s ready to become a major factor over the remainder of the season, registering 5 points, 3 rebounds and 2 fouls drawn for a PIR of 10.
As expected, Bartzokas also used the game as an opportunity to rotate playing time around his roster, with Luke Sikma in particular taking advantage of a rare off night from Alec Peters (2 points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field) to showcase his skills.
Sikma played for more than 20 minutes, his second-highest total of the season, and scored 7 points as well as doing a great job defensively to record a plus/minus of +9, the joint highest of any Olympiacos player alongside another bench booster, Giannoulis Larentzakis.
Perfect preparation for the playoffs
All told, Friday’s regular-season closer might not have been the most important game of the campaign, but it ended up serving as a perfect preparation for its upcoming playoff battle against Barcelona, keeping Olympiacos’s competitive juices flowing, maintaining momentum with a battling win against a direct rival and sending the loyal legion of fans home very happy.
And Bartzokas is ready to enjoy whatever comes next, saying: “We’ve ended the season with a win on our home court and we’re really happy that we’re going to play the playoffs one more time.
“It’s not easy to get the playoffs spot, and we’re happy. We are going to be well prepared and we will be a tough opponent for any team. I’m sure all the games are going to be really good.”
Considering the thrills that this season has delivered so far, ‘really good’ sounds like a fair prediction.