Olympiacos immediately snatched home advantage in the series with Barcelona by imposing in the Pala Blaugrana for 75-77. Bartzokas' men are good at imposing their game and taking Barcelona to terrain they didn't want to explore. Thanks to Synergy let's analyze some highlights of the first match between Olympiacos and Barcelona.
Point Center Fall
Right from the start, Barcelona was very worried about the receptions around the rim, especially those from Fall, further accentuating their tendency to defend in containment and to always keep the area full as much as possible.
Bartzokas' plan is to use his big man to exploit his ability to read from the post and create passing lanes for his shooters or punish pairing with Vesely. No sooner said than done, the French center was very effective in the post both in the creation phase and in the construction phase.
Transition Barcelona
The match that was played in Game 1 was the one most suited to Olympiacos in terms of pace and type of basketball and in Bartzokas' game plan one of the focal points was the need to not let the home team run in transition.
Perfect proof is in the 1,583 ppp generated every time the Catalans managed to spread out over 28 metres. The key to the Greek victory? Having granted it only 12 times.
A note for game 2: limit the 19 turnovers that greatly fueled this transition.
Defense on Laprovittola
One of the keys to Olympiacos' victory in game 1 is the defense on Barcelona's main offensive focus, namely Nicolas Laprovittola. The Argentine player is the main creator with ball in hand and is very dangerous when he gets into rhythm.
Given his ability to score triples off the dribble, perhaps after playing the pick and roll and forcing the switch, the Olympiacos defense decides to always push him inside on his pick and rolls. Remove him from the three-point line, allow mid-range solutions and make him see the full area to also remove his incursions to the rim.
All done very well starting from the excellent work of Walkup, up to the excellent protection of the rim done by the long red and whites.
Pick and roll containment
Another key to Olympiacos' victory are the 1,069 ppp made from pick and roll situations. Barcelona's defense showed constant difficulty throughout the evening in containing the red and white wingers.
The bulk of the problems arose from the main aspect that is the basis of every type of defense: pressure on the ball. The Catalan wingers struggled enormously to contain their opponents' first step, so they had difficulty passing over the blocks.