After suffering a home upset on Wednesday, Barcelona will be desperate to bounce back at Palau Blaugrana against an Olympiacos team determined to move within one win of a third straight Final Four.
Game Notes: Barcelona vs. Olympiacos
Barca's focus will be improved play inside the paint after converting just 18 of its 38 two-point attempts in the 75-77 defeat. Jan Vesely will be particularly keen to bounce back after enduring a miserable birthday, scoring just 3 points with no field goals converted and 3 turnovers. A collective focus will be better ball control after Barca committed 17 turnovers on Wednesday.
Olympiacos was able to enjoy its Game 1 triumph despite minimal contributions from key offensive performers Thomas Walkup (0 points) and Alec Peters (1), who should therefore be fresh and motivated to give their team more help on Friday.
- Out of 36 games that Olympiacos and Barcelona have played this century, nine have been either at the Final Four or in the EuroLeague Playoffs.
- In Game 1, Olympiacos held onto a 75-77 win in Palau Blaugrana with Nigel Williams-Goss scoring 15 points.
- Olympiacos won its first EuroLeague crown by beating Barcelona 73-58 in the 1997 championship game in Rome led by Final Four MVP David Rivers's 26 points.
- Barcelona bested Olympiacos in the 2010 EuroLeague championship game in Paris 86-68 thanks to 21 points from Final Four MVP Juan Carlos Navarro.
- Olympiacos edged Barcelona 68-64 in the 2012 Final Four Semifinals on the way to winning the EuroLeague in Istanbul.
- Olympiacos beat Barcelona 3-1 in the 2015 EuroLeague Playoffs.
- Barcelona and Olympiacos have played in the third-place game twice, first in 2009 when Barcelona won 95-79, and also at the 2022 Final Four when Barcelona prevailed over Olympiacos 84-74.
- Barcelona swept Olympiacos during the regular season, including an 86-78 home win in early January with Jabari Parker scoring a personal-best 21 points.
- Olympiacos coach Georgios Bartzokas was Barcelona's head coach during the 2016-17 season; he led the club to a 12-18 regular-season record. No player from that season remains on the Barcelona roster.
- Olympiacos forward Kostas Papanikolaou played for Barcelona during the 2013-14 season. He helped the team win the Spanish League championship.
- Olympiacos guard Thomas Walkup was a teammate of Barcelona guard Rokas Jokubaitis at Zalgiris Kaunas for three seasons, from 2018 to 2021.
- Olympiacos's Ignas Brazdeikis was a teammate of Jokubaitis on the Lithuanian national team at the 2023 Basketball World Cup.
- Olympiacos center Nikola Milutinov has been a teammate of Barcelona's Nikola Kalinic on the Serbian national team.
- Milutinov earned MVP of the Round honors after he led Olympiacos to a 60-69 victory in Barcelona with 18 points plus 14 rebounds, including 7 offensive boards, for a PIR of 36 in December 2018.
- Olympiacos forward Luke Sikma and Barcelona's Oscar da Silva were teammates at ALBA Berlin during the 2021-22 season.
- Sikma posted his career high with 7 offensive rebounds playing for ALBA against Barcelona in October 2021.
- Barcelona guard Nicolas Laprovittola set his career-high with 3 steals in a road loss against Olympiacos in April 2022.
- Barcelona point guard Tomas Satoransky collected a career-high 4 steals in a season-opening loss against Olympiacos in October 2022.
- Olympiacos guard Shaquielle McKissic swiped a career-high 5 steals in the third-place game at the 2022 Final Four.
- Barcelona forward Nikola Kalinic scored a career-high 25 points and had a career-best PIR of 27 while playing for Crvena Zvezda Belgrade against Olympiacos in December 2021.