Luke Sikma return helped Olympiacos fight through shortened rotation

In his first game in nearly a month, the forward made key contributions to help the short-handed Reds triumph on the road.

Olympiacos Piraeus is battling through a tough stretch with injuries to key players, but it was the return of major offseason addition Luke Sikma who helped the Reds fight past Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv to snap a two-game losing skid.

Olympiacos had a great offensive first half and then slumped to just 28 points in the final 20 minutes but still managed to fend off Maccabi 74-79 to move back to .500 at 4-4.

The Greek side came into the game missing star big man Nikola Milutinov as well as veteran guard Shaquielle McKissic both to injuries. Head coach Georgios Bartzokas’s rotation got even shorter when Nigel Williams-Goss went down with a right leg injury midway through the second quarter.

And then Alec Peters was suddenly out of the game with 3 minutes left in the third quarter as he picked up a fourth foul and was immediately hit with a technical foul to finish his night as he was leading the team in scoring at that point and Olympiacos ahead 46-60.

“We have a shorter rotation because of injuries to Milutinov and McKissic and then we lost Williams-Goss in the first half. And then we lost Alec Peters with a foul and technical foul. And our short rotation was even shorter. But we managed to win,” Bartzokas said. “This win is very important for us, especially after the two painful losses to Fenerbahce and Baskonia on the final possession.”

Moustapha Fall played a major role in the game, picking up 10 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists in 35 minutes of action.

“We were short-handed. We had injuries and players who got fouled out. We need to win every game now. We just have to fight to do it. It happens what is going to happen,” said the big man.

One of the biggest silver linings in all the injury news was the return to action of Luke Sikma. The big man played his first game since Round 3 as he was out with a leg injury.

“Luke did a great job in his return back. Shout out to 43 really coming back and giving us a lift,” said Thomas Walkup about the American forward.

Sikma is known for his versatility and also unselfishness and the 34-year-old scored 8 points on 4-of-6 shooting to go with 4 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal in 10:39 minutes.

“We were lucky that Sikma came back. He gave us 10 important minutes in this game,” added the Olympiacos coach.

Bartzokas is definitely happy to have Sikma back in the mix. Now he wants the others to get back to health.

“Hopefully we will have everybody back very soon so we can evaluate what we can do,” he said.

Until then, Olympiacos will need more fights like against Maccabi to get victories.