The two bench players made a huge impact in the game, but it wasn’t enough
Filip Petrusev, Moses Wright gave their all for Olympiacos in Game 3 defeat
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On a night when Olympiacos Piraeus’s bench players outscored the starters 54-26, the Greek side still came up short to FC Barcelona as it lost 80-82 in overtime in Game 3 of their best-of-five series in the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs.
Big men Filip Petrusev and Moses Wright were the two main contributors off the bench for the Reds, combining for 34 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks. For Petrusev, he had his best scoring night since joining Olympiacos in a mid-season transfer, netting 18 points, while Wright’s energy certainly made up for the absence of Nikola Milutinov, who didn’t see a second on the floor.
A notable impact
The majority of Wright’s points came in a fruitful second quarter as he scored 11 points to help Olympiacos turn a 13-13 score at the end of the first period into a 37-32 lead at the break. Petrusev, meanwhile, had 8 points at halftime. Olympiacos was not getting much out of its starters, so the impact of Petrusev and Wright was definitely a big plus.
Both Wright and Petrusev got limited game time in the third, albeit the American was able to tack on two more points to his tally, but they were at the fore of everything good for the Reds in the fourth as Barcelona mounted a comeback on the back of impressive three-point shooting. In overtime, however, things didn’t quite go to plan for the two bench players as their impact faded and Barcelona managed to secure an 80-82 win after Jabari Parker went 2 for 3 from the line with 0.5 seconds to go.
There was a feeling of frustration and disappointment for everyone at Olympiacos after Game 3, but if Petrusev and Wright can perform to a similar level in Game 4 on Thursday – and the starters can play to their usual standards – we might be heading back to Barcelona for a do-or-die Game 5 next week.