The hosts suffocated the Reds in Game 3
Real Madrid discovered a blueprint to build on ahead of Game 4
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A return to basics is often considered as the best solution when a team finds itself with its back against the wall, and that was the situation for Real Madrid at halftime against Olympiacos Piraeus on Tuesday night.
The hosts hit the ground running and took a 28-21 lead into the second quarter, but the Reds bounced back and outscored Los Blancos 10-23 to make it 38-44 after 20 minutes.
Enter Real Madrid’s most powerful weapon in this last stretch of the season. The hosts’ defense suffocated Olympiacos’s offense, holding the visitors to just 12 and 16 points in the last two quarters. This was just the third time that Georgios Bartzokas’s men have scored fewer than 73 points in one game this season.
“Our defense was very good,” coach Chus Mateo told EuroLeague TV after the game. “We stayed together in the bad moments and we grew up as a team.”
Real Madrid recorded 11 steals and scored as many as 16 points off turnovers throughout the game. All players who stepped on to the floor, including starters and second unit, were locked in on defense, with Sergio Llull, Mario Hezonja, Dzanan Musa and Walter Tavares registering 2 steals each. Four of their steals came in the crucial fourth quarter, dealing a big blow to the guests.
“We know that the playoffs are [about] defense and not offense,” Tavares stressed. “If we play defense, on offense we have more confidence to make the plays, make the shots.”
Ten of Olympiacos’s 14 turnovers came after the break, with the guests struggling to share the ball in their bid to find open looks.
“We turned the ball over 10 times in the last 20 minutes and all of that was transition points that we gave them,” Bartzokas admitted in the post-game press conference.
Despite losing Game 2 in Piraeus, Real Madrid held Olympiacos to just 77 points, laying a solid foundation to build on. A few adjustments on both ends and Evan Fournier’s absence due to injury allowed the hosts to tighten up their defense.
Boosted by the crowd at Movistar Arena, Real Madrid didn’t allow Olympiacos to produce the signature free-flowing offense that helped it clinch top spot in the regular-season standings.
The two teams will have less than a couple of days to work on their adjustments before they take to the floor on Thursday night, when Real Madrid will look to even the series while Olympiacos will aim for a victory that would clinch them a spot at the Final Four.
“We've just got to get one more win,” Musa told EuroLeague TV. “We know that it’s not going to be easy on Thursday. They will adjust, they will be better, but I think that we now have the formula of how we want to play, how we want to approach these games and I think that if we do the right thing, we can tie the series.”
The blueprint is there for Real Madrid, which has lost just five games at home this season. One of those defeats came at the hands of Olympiacos, with Tuesday’s loss for the Reds being their first loss on Spanish soil this season.
With Game 4 just around the corner, Real Madrid can look back on its players’ effort and hustle in the second half of Game 3 and draw inspiration as it looks to take the series back to Greece.