CSKA — Olympiacos, 21 March 2018

CSKA vs. Olympiacos Piraeus: 89-81 (+8)

CSKA: Rodriguez (13 + 3 as), Vorontsevich (3), Clyburn (12 + 6 rb + 2 as + 3 to), Kurbanov (4 + 3 rb), Hines (7 + 3 rb + 2 as) – start; De Colo (25 + 5 rb + 4 as + 4 to), Rudd (0), Fridzon (0), Westermann (0), Antonov (5), Higgins (14 + 4 as + 3 to), Hunter (6 + 5 rb + 2 st)…

Olympiacos: Papapetrou (2 + 3 rb + 2 st), Spanoulis (17 + 6 as + 3 st + 5 to), Milutinov (10 + 5 rb + 2 bs), Printezis (24 + 5 rb), Roberts (9 + 3 as) – start; McLean (3 + 5 rb + 2 st), Brown (3 + 4 pf), Strelnieks (5 + 3 to), Tillie (3), Bogris (DNP), Wiltjer (0), Thompson (5 + 4 rb)…

The first thing that I want to say is congratulations to the players. We accomplished another goal, which is qualifying with the home-court advantage, and today, with the win, we secured the first spot. This is not given, this is something accomplished by everyone, including those who were not on the roster or who are injured. This is our philosophy. We have three games remaining in the regular season and we need to show our character also in those games, due to the club’s history and for our fans. Regarding the game, we had bad start. Olympiacos scored 18 points in less than 4 minutes. After time-out we started playing more seriously, we went on 10-0 run going from 11-18 to 21-18. There was an issue with turnovers, many of them were unforced. We won the final three quarters, 66-55 if I am not mistaken, we won the rebounding battle against one of top teams in that category. The margin of win was not important, we just wanted to play wise. Wherever we had the mismatches, we go on the block, we go to drive-and-kick, we shared the ball well. We shot 60% for two and more than 40% for three, we were aggressive and physical. Congratulations to the fans, who filled the gym. It is nice to have such an atmosphere. I have to mention it all the time: we are growing and CSKA fans show that they like the players and the team.