Regular Season
- December 03, 2008
- PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP STADIUM
Local time: 7:00 PM
TV
CET: 6:00 PM
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Head Coaches
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GIANNAKIS, PANAGIOTIS
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Olympiacos head coach
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"Avellino is a newcomer in the competition, but they have experienced players, who have the knowledge of big games and they have proved it so far. Their performance against Cibona in Zagreb shows that it will not be an easy night for us and this is something I keep telling my players from the beginning of the season. If we have patience, concentration and stick to our game plan, then we will take what we want from this game. If not, we will have a problem, since we are facing a tough team that is coming to play with no pressure at all."
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MARKOVSKI, ZARE
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Air Avellino head coach
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"After first half of the season, we have the same possibility that we had at the beginning of the competition. I think Avellino has a good chance to advance to the Top 16 and we have showed to be a good team. Against Olympiacos it will be a very tough game. Probably it’s the best team of our group and it has one of the most impressive rosters of the Euroleague. They were defeated in Zagreb and deservedly won the other games."
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Players
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TEODOSIC, MILOS
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Olympiacos guard
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"We know very well that if we want to finish at the place we are right now, we can't make a single false step, especially in our home court. Avellino is not easy to beat and I think everybody knows that from our first battle in Italy. They execute very quickly and sometimes they play with freedom. In addition, they are coming with no particular stress and that could cause great problems. If we perform according to our potential as a team and mainly start our game from defense, then we will take the victory."
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BEST, TRAVIS
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Air Avellino guard
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"Last week we lost in Zagreb against Cibona and our walk to the Top 16 is more difficult at the moment, but we can’t give up. Therefore Avellino must trust in its chance. We have a good possibility to qualify to the next stage and we’ll play to win this game. In the first half of the season we have seen all the teams and I think that in the second half we’ll be able to try to win against all our opponents"
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Olympiacos will look to stay atop the Group A standings when it entertains Air Avellino at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus, Greece, on Wednesday. The Reds are coming off a tough overtime win at Le Mans last week that saw the club improve its record to 4-1 – tied with Cibona for the top spot in the group. Meanwhile Avellino saw its modest two-game winning streak snapped at Cibona and head coach Zare Markovski’s squad continues to seek its first road win. Olympiacos pulled away after a slow start to bury Avellino 69-83 when they met in their season openers in October. Josh Childress paced five players in double figures in his first ever Euroleague game with 14 points as well as 8 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Olympiacos has continued to come together in recent game, with a number of players getting better from week to week. Guards Lynn Greer and Yotam Halperin are coming off their best games of the season, while Theo Papaloukas has dished at least 5 assists in each of the last four games. Milos Teodosic completes a strong backcourt that will lead the Reds at home against Avellino’s trio of Travis Best, Chris Warren and Drake Diener. At small forward, Tamar Slay will try to contain Childress on one of the key matchups of the night. Ioannis Bourousis has dominated inside for head coach Panagiotis Giannakis’s men, leading a frontcourt of Nikola Vujcic, Zoran Erceg and Sofoklis Schortsanitis. And the Reds can change looks with forwards Panos Vasilopoulos and Georgios Printezis playing important roles as well. Meanwhile Avellino may give up size, but not power with Eric Williams at center. Marko Tusek and Nikola Radulovic complete the frontline, with defensive strongman Andrea Crosariol available to bring size to the post. At home, Olympiacos is the clear favorite. Avellino’s best chance for the upset would come on the glass. The visitors have won both games this season in which they have outrebounded the opposition and lost all three times that they have not. However, Olympiacos is second in the league in rebounds and has outrebounded its opponents in all five games this season by an average of 6.4 per game – including winning the battle of the boards 33-42 the last time these two teas met. Another big night on the glass could spell a long evening in Piraeus for Avellino.
GAME QUOTES
Olympiacos
- Guard Yotam Halperin needs just 3 more steals to reach 100 for his Euroleague Basketball career.
- Center Nikola Vujcic needs 20 more points to reach the 2,000-point plateau. Only four players have accomplished that feat to date – Marcus Brown, Luis Scola, J.R. Holden and Jaka Lakovic, the last of whom did so last week.
- Guard Lynn Greer has seen his minutes played, points scored and three-pointers made rise in each Euroleague game this season.
- Forward Josh Childress scored a season-high 24 points in Olympiacos’s Greek League win over Kolossos Rhodes on Sunday. His Euroleague season high is 15 scored in Week 2 against Unicaja. He has not scored in double figures since that game.
Air Avellino
- Forward Marko Tusek has made at least 1 three-pointer in his last eight Euroleague games dating back to April 2007.
- Guard Drake Diener has made at least 1 three-pointer in his last seven Euroleague games dating back to the Quarterfinal Playoffs last season.
- Forward Nikola Radulovic and Olympiacos center Nikola Vujcic were teammates on the 2002 Asvel Basket squad that won the French championship.
- Guard Antonio Porta was a member of the bronze-medal winning Argentinean national team at the 2008 Olympics that edged Greece in the quarterfinals 80-78. That Greece team was coached by Olympiacos head coach Panagiotis Giannakis and featured five current Olympiacos players: Theo Papaloukas, Panagiotis Vassilopoulos, Ioannis Bouroussis, Giorgos Printezis and Michalis Pelekanos.
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Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Euroleague.net
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Stats Comparisions: Teams and players
| 84.8 |
Pts. |
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GREER, LYNN |
16.4 |
Pts. |
19.0 |
WARREN, CHRIS |
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Pts. |
76.2 |
| 55.36 % |
2FG% |
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PAPALOUKAS, THEODOROS |
70.00 % |
2FG% |
77.78 % |
RADULOVIC, NIKOLA |
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2FG% |
50.00 % |
| 43.06 % |
3FG% |
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PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS |
100.00 % |
3FG% |
44.44 % |
DIENER, DRAKE |
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3FG% |
33.85 % |
| 36.6 |
Rebounds |
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BOUROUSIS, IOANNIS |
8.8 |
Rebounds |
6.4 |
WILLIAMS, ERIC |
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Rebounds |
32.6 |
| 15.8 |
Assist. |
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PAPALOUKAS, THEODOROS |
5.2 |
Assist. |
4.2 |
BEST, TRAVIS |
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Assist. |
11.4 |
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