With 86-68 ended the game of the Euroleague finals between basketball teams of Olympiakos and Barcelona, which played in Paris. Despite the overwhelming desire and good game Olympiacos failed to win against the Spanish team. Barcelona proved to be too strong of an opponent with extremely fast pace play and almost impenetrable defence. So for the second time in its history, the Spanish team won the title of European champion. Olimpiacos on its part played for the fourth time in its history in the Euroleague.
The game started with a strong attack by the Spanish team. They organized a great game and were able to quickly pass the ball as they wished. The biggest contributors to their victory last night was player Navarre, who virtually did everything. He was stealing the ball, making good passes and scoring. Olympiacos used all its energy in defence and was left almost with no chances for counterattacks. So from the 17-13 for the Spanish, the difference increased to 24-16, 26-17, 28-19. The white-reds were blocked on the court. After Sada and Grimau scored many times, Bourousis proceed with an attack, scored 3 points and the score became 31-22. Followed was a core of 33-24, 35-26 and zeal of the white-reds to give everything on the court. On the side of Olympiacos, Thodoris Papaloukas was in a very good shape. It seemed that he managed to most successfully attack the opponent’s basket. After his attacks, however, were followed by attacks of Navarro and a game in which Barcelona did whatever it wanted. The result reached 38-26. The hope of the Greeks was to block the ball of Barcelona and thereby unlock the game. With a basket of Papaloukas the difference was reduced to 38-30. Followed was a counterattack by the Spanish team, which did not allow Olympiacos to get close to their result. The result increased to 41-30, 43-30, 43-32.
After a crisis moment when Shortsanitis failed to score, new attacks followed by Navarro. With a 3 point basket he brought the result to 46-32. Olympiacos was stuck 12 points behind. Reversing the result proved to be a difficult task. Thus, the objective shifted and instead of attacking the white-reds concentrated in keeping the achieved until now score. The first half ended with 47-36.
The second half began dramatically different for Olympiacos. From the very beginning the team proceed to attack. Shortsanitis scored and brought the result to 47-38. Followed was a great basket by Childress and a score of 47-40 for the white-reds. Olympiacos did all it could with its defence. This was the only time in the game, in which the Greeks had the chance to turn the result in their favour. After a basket by Linas Kleiza the score difference was only 7 points (49-42). However, followed a basket by Navarro and the score became 52-42. Childress’ 3 point basket decreased the difference to 7 points again. After this crisis moment Barcelona quickly woke up and again took the score up the ladder. The difference reached 14 points. The desperate attempts of the white-reds lasted until the end...
Barcelona (Pascual): Basile, Rubio, Navarro, Vasquez, N’Dong, Morris, Sada, Lorbek, Mickeal, Grimau
Olympiakos (Giannakis): Papaloukas, Penn, Childress, Vujcic, Vasilopoulos, Bourousis, Halperin, Kleiza, Mavrokefalides, Beverley, Teodosic, Shortsanitis
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