They threaten coarse in the European future of Barça, for which the crosses in the Euroleague playoffs can be exponentially complicated if it does not refine in the final stretch of the regular season. Jasikevicius' men did not start in the best way in a week that could be key in this sense, with a double European day, and they did not pass the always difficult test in Piraeus against a very direct rival such as Bartzokas' Olympiacos. If in the duel this Tuesday the assault on the leadership was in contention, on Friday against Fenerbahçe Barça will have to defend the third position tooth and nail, always thinking about the possible rival in the quarterfinals, the last stage towards Kaunas .
The game was an occasion for the vindication of Barça, pitifully defeated at the weekend in Zaragoza, and to consolidate its theoretical candidacy for the long-awaited Euroleague. But the defeat does nothing more than feed the doubts of a team that has too many faces to be bumped into regularly and think of major successes right now.
Jasikevicius's team lacked threats in the port of Piraeus to beat once again the best team in the competition after their victory and Real Madrid's defeat against Baskonia (81-85). Threats and wrists a little fine-tuned, his shooting night was terrible starting with his horrendous 9/29 on the triple, statistics only made up in the third quarter. Isolated actions by Laprovittola (8 assists stained with 5 turnovers) and Mirotic's trademark baskets receiving in the paint ended up becoming the only Barça weapons.
Olympiacos took a quarter to figure out Barça's defense but as soon as they did, they accumulated too many problems at their rival's gates. McKissic gave a clinic penetrating to the basket, Larentzakis refined his wrist and MVP Vezenkov got in tune in the final stretch to give the finishing touch.
Barça only dominated the first quarter but even then they missed the three-pointers one after the other. Jokubaitis made it 11-22 already in the 11th minute but the joys for Jasikevicius ended there. A withering 12-0 gave Olympiacos an advantage, which they already commanded almost until the end, stretching to 75-65 with a three-pointer from Larentzakis as the maximum.
The Fenerbahçe of Itoudis, Calathes, Dorsey and company will be the next stumbling block for Barça. Another trial by fire.
77. Olympiacos (11 18 21 27): Walkup (6), Canaan (0), Papanikolaou (8), Vezenkov (13), Fall (5) -cinco inicial- Larentzakis (14), Sloukas (3), Peters ( 6), Black (6) and McKissic (16).
70. Barça (20 7 18 25): Satoransky (1), Laprovittola (15), Kalinic (8), Mirotic (19), Sanli (13) -starting five- Da Silva (0), Vesely (2), Abrines (0), Higgins (10) and Jokubaitis (2).
Referees: Ilija Belosevic (SER), Mehdi Difallah (FRA) and Saso Petek (ESL). They eliminated the local Black (min.40) and the visitor Abrines (min.35) for five fouls.
Incidents: match of day 27 of the Euroleague played at the Stadium of Peace and Friendship in Piraeus (Greece). The Spanish Míchel González, Olympiacos football coach, witnessed the match at the foot of the track.
