Fenerbahce came out on top against Olympiacos in a fascinating battle on Friday night
Emotions boiled over as EuroLeague heavyweights locked horns
Članak
3 Min čitanja
Regular Season
Round 1 of 34
Regular Season
Fenerbahce Beko IstanbulFBB
8271
Olympiacos PiraeusOLY
Overview
w
l
The much-anticipated blockbuster in Round 1 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague fully lived up to its billing as it produced a high-octane clash between Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and Olympiacos Piraeus.
Packed with talent, both teams gave as good as they got throughout the contest, with Fenerbahce prevailing 82-71 thanks to immense contributions from new arrivals Wade Baldwin, Bonzie Colson and Boban Marjanovic, complemented by a stellar fourth-quarter performance by stalwart Nigel Hayes-Davis.
An understrengthed Olympiacos, missing injured big men Nikola Milutinov and Moustapha Fall, got outmuscled in the paint and forced to take a barrage of tough perimeter shots, which they clearly did not enjoy having lost the battle of the boards 44-24 while making only 4-of-20 shots from downtown.
Fenerbahce was able to pull away in the fourth quarter, hitting top gear at both ends in the home stretch, as the hosts forced the Greek side into submission. What followed was an ugly face-off between the home team’s head coach Saras Jasikevicius and his Olympiacos counterpart Georgios Bartzokas.
Jasikevicius got into his longtime rival’s face and the latter responded with an equally angry gesture, forcing their staff and assistants to pull them apart after the final buzzer.
Both men later offered their explanations at the post-game press conference, blaming each other for lack of respect in a rare sight of rivalry going too far in Europe’s premier club competition.
Yet, Bartzokas and Jasikevicius will no doubt quickly put their spat to bed and turn their attention to upcoming challenges, on and off the court. The Olympiacos play-caller must be hoping that Milutinov and Fall will recover quickly, while the Fenerbahce boss will have to deal with the long-term absence of guard Scottie Wilbekin, who suffered an ACL tear in the first quarter against Olympiacos.
On the court, it appears Jasikevicius hit the nail on the head with the new signings, whose quality should give Fenerbahce the extra depth required to feature as strong contenders to win its second EuroLeague title.
In contrast, Bartzokas seemingly faces a tough process of blending Evan Fournier into the Olympiacos offense after a 12-year spell in the NBA, where he averaged a career-high 19.7 points for the Orlando Magic in the 2020-2021 season before he got traded to the Boston Celtics during that campaign.
Fournier failed to hit the ground running on his EuroLeague debut, having scored a mere 5 points while managing just 1 assist against an ironclad Fenerbahce defense.
Bartzokas ultimately conceded that Olympiacos lacked the zest and mettle to prevail in an intimidating environment.
“We made some silly turnovers and gave them 14 offensive rebounds. It was about lack of physicality, aggressiveness and desire to get the ball, which is a big problem for us right now,” he said in a courtside interview.
“The players need to understand that every game in the EuroLeague is war, and they need to play like warriors if they want to win.”