The club from the French capital is now riding a 10-game winning streak
Paris survived in Piraeus to make its biggest statement yet
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Regular Season
Round 14 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Paris Basketball keeps making statements in its debut Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season. On Friday night, Paris went into Peace and Friendship Stadium and knocked down the mighty Olympiacos Piraeus 90-96 in a fantastic game that, in the fourth quarter, turned into a thrill ride.
It was a game where something had to give, either Olympiacos's 6-0 home record or the nine-game winning streak that Paris carried into the game. When all was said and done, it was Paris that extended its winning streak to 10 games.
"This is another huge win," Paris star guard TJ Shorts said on EuroLeague TV after the game. "To play in an environment like this, the fans that they have, the roster that they have, it is a huge win. Everybody stepped up, big play after big play."
Paris were in cruise control when it extended its lead to 60-80 thanks to a 0-7 run to open the fourth quarter. Olympiacos was without a basket for the opening 3 minutes of the final stanza, and Paris looked to be well on its way to a blowout win on the Reds' court.
However, the proud hosts, carried by a sold-out crowd, needed less than 4 minutes to put together a 22-0 run behind aggressive defense that produced 7 steals and had Olympiacos getting easy fast-break layups one after another.
Suddenly, with 3:11 left in the game, Olympiacos had its first lead, 82-80.
No matter the opponent, let alone a newcomer in the competition, a team on the receiving end of an onslaught like that is not expected to get back out of its slump on one of the toughest floors in all of Europe. But Paris did just that.
"We knew who we were playing against at their home, with their fans pushing," said Paris head coach Tiago Splitter. "Even though we got 20 points up, they got back in the game [by] playing very aggressive. We could not get out shots up, turning over the ball."
Thankfully for Paris, there is that famous 'but' in Splitter's explanation.
"But, we managed to finish the game. Maodo Lo at the end of the game was huge for us, TJ as always being our captain leading us and hit a huge three at the end. Defensively, everyone was doing a great effort."
Nadir Hifi hit a near-impossible triple to snap that 22-0 run and restore Paris's lead, then Shorts drained his only triple of the game. Olympiacos still managed to tie it and then had a possession to take another lead in the final minute, but Paris made a defensive stand that led to Lo's transition triple with 20.5 seconds to go, making it 86-89. And Paris went on to protect its lead.
"For three or four minutes we struggled, but I am proud how we finished the game," Splitter said. "They were very aggressive with TJ and then I brought another guard. And Maodo, he is and experienced guy, he took the shots. And TJ took the shots when he was not pressured as much in those minutes. I am proud of these guys."
"It goes to a testament to a resilience of our locker room," added Tyson Ward, the scorer of 14 points, about those final minutes. "Nobody gave up, nobody doubted the fact that we still have a chance to win this game. A lot of people could be in that situation, and it could go the other way."
The way Paris found a way to get another win when it got so tough at the end is yet more proof this team deserves to be sitting atop the EuroLeague standings. And the side from the French capital earned some unprompted praise from Olympiacos head coach Georgios Bartzokas.
"It was a fantastic game that showed why Paris is first in the standings and has 10 wins in a row," Bartzokas said. "They play with an amazing speed, shooting the ball really well, defending really hard, playing physical, and they deserve to be in the first place."
Considering where and when this victory took place, and how it happened, with just over two months full of statement wins, this is arguably the biggest statement Paris has made of them all.