'Hungry dogs': Olympiacos not content with semifinal win / News - Basketnews.com

Just before the final horn sounded, Kostas Papanikoloau instructed his teammates not to celebrate the semifinal win. On Sunday, Olympiakos will be looking to become the first Turkish Airlines EuroLeague regular season winner to take it all.

Credit: L.Žemgulis Credit L.Žemgulis

As Kostas Papanikoloau was substituted with 47 seconds left to play in the fourth quarter, the job was done. His team, Olympiacos Piraeus were comfortably leading by 12 points, up to that point having allowed only 19 points in the second half.

Player of the Game EFF 21 Kostas Papanikolaou Points 15 Accuracy 5-10 Rebounds 8 Assists 0

Olympiacos were going to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague final game to face FC Barcelona or Real Madrid in the crucial Sunday game. Still, the Reds' captain was not going to celebrate that.

Instead, he calmed everyone down. Every single player on the Olympiacos bench heard or saw what Papanikolaou had to say - he instructed not to celebrate once the final horn sounded.

Seconds later, his teammates complied, and when the game finished, there was no jumping around or screaming like crazy.

"We didn't come here for one game," Papanikoloau explained to BasketNews after the game. "We did an amazing job, we are in the final game on Sunday, but that's not enough. We have a chance for a trophy, that's what we want, that’s what we came here for."

That wasn't how it looked like after 20 minutes of play. After starting the game by hitting only one shot of the first 8, Olympiacos were down 29-41 at the half.

Regular season winners looked scared, lacking confidence, and 20 minutes away from being eliminated from title contention.

"We didn't play our game, and the most important problem for us was defense," Papanikolaou said. "We allowed 41 points, we were nervous, missed a lot of free throws, lay-ups. We knew if we tightened up our defense, we at least would be able to fight for this game. That’s what we did."

Oh boy, they did.

Olympiacos opened the second half with a 14-0 run and never looked back. The final margin of the quarter, 27-2, is ready for the history books.

"In the third quarter, everybody fought as hell, gave everything. We shifted the momentum, we opened up the space, we gained confidence, and then shots started falling,and everything started working for us.

We're hungry dogs, as my teammates say, we are hungry for this trophy. I didn’t want to go out without at least fighting. Because in the first half, we didn’t fight. We allowed Monaco to play their game and didn’t do anything about it. The way we played in the second half, even if we had lost the game, I would have been proud of my teammates. But we fought as hell."

On Sunday, Olympiakos will be looking to become the first regular season winner to take it all. Since the EuroLeague regular season format changed to round robin in 2016, none of the regular season winners has lifted the trophy.

It might change this year, but for Papanikolaou it’s too early to celebrate anything.

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