The Spanish side managed to even up the series at 1-1 with a victory on Friday night
Jan Vesely, Barcelona bounced back in Game 2
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After its home loss in Game 1 against Olympiacos Piraeus, FC Barcelona had its back against the wall. On Friday night, however, Jan Vesely bounced back from an underwhelming performance, with his hustle in Game 2 proving to be contagious in a 77-69 win.
Vesely had a rough night a couple of days ago and could not celebrate his 34th birthday with a win. Olympiacos limited him to 3 points, 4 rebounds, 3 fouls and a PIR of 2.
It was a different story in Game 2. He hit his first shot, a five-meter jumper that got Barca going in the game, and even when he didn't have his best offensive night, he found ways to help his team.
"This was a strange game. There were not a lot of open things for any kind of situations," Vesely told Euroleague.net's Panos Kostopoulos after the game. "I just tried to help my team in a little bit of a different kind of way: setting screens, going for offensive rebounds, and it worked today. We secured a couple of possessions like this, scoring off offensive rebounds, which was important. It was a team effort on both sides of the court."
He finished the game with 10 points, 7 rebounds and a PIR of 11. All of his rebounds were on the offensive end. His 7 offensive boards were the most for a Barca player in a playoff game since Fran Vazquez grabbed the same number against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in a do-or-die Game 3 in 2008. Vesely had not grabbed that many offensive rebounds since getting 8 while playing for Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul against Brose Bamberg on February 9, 2018.
His hustle allowed Barca to shake off the pressure. Barca finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds, 10 of which came in the second half. Those second-chance opportunities made the difference in the game.
"There was a little bit of pressure on all of us, I don't think it was only me," he continued. "I think everybody was a little bit out of their minds. For some of our players, it is the first playoff series, also for our coaches. The tension was in the air, on all of us. I believe that we were able to forget about it and try to play our game, and that's what we did today."
Vesely thinks that the team took a step in the right direction, too. Some adjustments made in between games worked but above all, Barca was focused and that is a great sign going forward.
"In Game 1, the tension was on our heads, and I don't think we followed our strategy," Vesely added. "We weren't focused and disciplined. Today, we were there, it was OK, had some ups and downs in the game but that's normal. It's not easy to play for 40 minutes, to be focused."