Olympiacos kicks off its title defense in the Basque Country!
The Piraeus team faces (9:30 p.m.) Baskonia at the “Fernando Buesa Arena” for the EuroLeague opener, looking to start the season with a win, against a team that isn’t expected to be a contender this season.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Olympiacos has already played its first official games in the newly established EuroLeague Super Cup, which took place in Abu Dhabi. Treating those two games as important warm-ups before the big ones, it first defeated Fenerbahçe 92-90, before losing by a narrow margin of 93-89 to Real Madrid in the final.
Earlier, they won the tough friendly tournaments they played in Crete and Cyprus, and now has the Greek Super Cup ahead of it, followed by the first week of the EuroLeague with two games, where it will face Žalgiris in Lithuania (9/29, 8:00 p.m.) and Virtus Bologna in Italy (Oct. 2, 9:30 p.m.).
On the court, Nikola Milutinov, who did not play in the EuroLeague Super Cup, has fully recovered from the injuries that had been bothering him and traveled with the rest of the squad, which consists of 13 players. Nezipoglu was left out, along with the young players Plota and Bournel.
The Olympiacos roster: Miller-McIntyre, Montero, Dorsey, Joseph, Ward, Vezenkov, Papanikolaou, Ediai, Fournier, Karagiannidis, Milutinov, Hall, Jones.
“We have a good idea of what Baskonia is capable of, though they’ve played very few high-stakes games. Everyone expects us to deal with their speed in execution and on the open court. They play facing the basket, and that presents its own unique challenges. Defensively, we all needed to be at a high level. That’s why we lost to Real a few days ago,” said Giorgos Bartzokas, among other things, ahead of tonight’s game, with Miller McIntyre adding: “I’m happy to be returning to Vitoria. I feel ready, but it’s still early in the season. As we’ve seen in previous years, it doesn’t matter how you start the season—what matters most is how you finish it. It takes time for all the players to adapt to the new system.”
As for Baskonia, it’s starting this season with quite a few problems, as it lost several key players over the summer, with the biggest losses being those of Louvavou-Cabarrot and Forrest. They retained Howard on their roster, while it remains to be seen how their new additions will manage to adapt to the top level. A few days ago, they lost 96-84 to Badalona in the semifinals of the Spanish Super Cup.
On the court, Paolo Galbiati, who remained as head coach, has only one available center, Farid, who spent last season with Panathinaikos, after Len was injured and ultimately released, just a few days after the announcement of his signing.
“Olympiacos is an amazing team. They’ve signed Cody Miller-McIntyre and Montero, and they’ve also added Ediai, an incredible athlete. We need to grab rebounds, play defense, pass the ball, score, and enjoy the game. The game helps us gather footage and video that will help the players improve. “We want to win; we’re not just going into the game to play,” said the Baskonia coach.
Olympiacos won both of its meetings with tonight’s opponent last season, 102–96 in Vitoria and 90–80 at SEF.
*photo source: KYPE
