With the thought that first place in the EuroLeague regular season was no longer at stake, FC Barcelona played a more or less anxious-free game in Piraeus against hosts Olympiacos.
| Player of the Game | |
|
EFF
21
|
| Shaquielle McKissic | |
| Points | 20 |
| Accuracy | 7-11 |
| Rebounds | 3 |
| Assists | 2 |
For the Reds, the contest was more important, as Giorgos Bartzokas's team was immersed in the fight for second place. The Greeks got their first win over Barca in more than five years (73-66), taking advantage of their final push and the weak second half of the guests, who only scored 26 points after the break.
Ravaged by the absences of Brandon Davies, Rokas Jokubaitis, and Pierre Oriola and coming off of a loaded schedule, there was no reason for the Catalans to exceed themselves. No one played more than 20 minutes since star forward Nikola Mirotic stayed on the court for only 18 minutes, while guard Nicolas Laprovittola did not leave the bench until the third quarter.
In this respect, coach Sarunas Jasikevicius didn't have much to say in the post-game presser. The Lithuanian tactician expressed his satisfaction with his team's performance, despite the negative result.
"Congratulations to Giorgos and Olympiacos for this win. In general, we achieved a lot of the things that we set out to do today, except for the win," Saras initially said.
"Obviously, we wanted to win, but winning at all costs wasn't so important today," he conceded.
As Barcelona face MoraBanc Andorra for the Spanish League on Sunday, all available players must be able to compete.
"I think that all the players played the minutes they had to play. We got two juniors (Michael Caicedo, James Nnaji) to play a lot of minutes. Not everyone was good, but it's not easy to rotate all 12 players," he added.
A few minutes before Jasikevicius' presser, Giorgos Bartzokas pointed out that the game reminded him of a playoff contest rather than a regular-season one.
Barcelona's coach, however, disagreed with his colleague.
"It was a good atmosphere, but not a playoff game. What changed the game was that Olympiacos started to play with more physicality in the middle of the third quarter. We didn't respond in the proper way.
Olympiacos were better in the second half. Apart from losing the game, I'm very happy," Saras stressed.
