Olympiacos Piraeus v FC Barcelona Lassa: Barça come unstuck in Greece (59-52)

Barça Lassa travelled to Greece with the objective of getting their fifth Euroleague victory. Bartzokas, who was returning to the Pireu for the first time since his departure, was unable to guide his team to a victory over Olympiacos.

The game was a low-scoring affair ending with a scoreline of 59-52. The Catalan team left a difficult stadium defeated by the Greek's intense defence and nine three-pointers. A bright spark on the night was Jonathan Holmes, who played excellently and scored 13 points. However, he was unable to turn the score around with Barça trailing during pretty much the whole game.

Maximum intensity

The levels of intensity at the start of the game were very high and the teams exchanged scores with a close first five minutes ending with a score of 11-9. Holmes and Tomic led the charge for FCB with some strong defensive work and seven points between them. Olympiacos, led by Vassilis Spanoulis' nine points in the first quarter, opened up an advantage finishing the quarter with a 21-16 lead despite Holmes' ten points and 100% accuracy rate.

The second quarter followed the same line as the first with Olympiacos defending excellently, particularly in their efforts to negate Tyrese Rice's threat. The scoreboard stayed fairly close and at half time Barça were seven points behind (32-25).

Tyrese Rice came into the game in the second half and the American's points, with 11 in total, looking like they might make a difference. However, Olympiacos were resilient and maintained their lead thanks to a succession of three-pointers which left Barça chasing the game throughout.

Final roll of the dice

Barça kept getting pegged back everytime they got close to the Greek team. The need to close the gap made the Catalan team rush shots and Perperoglou, Koponen and Rice were all guilty of missed attempts.

Luck wasn't on Barça Lassa's side this time and they ended up losing 59-52 in the seventh Euroleague fixture of the season. Bartzokas' team have no time to dwell as they have the clásico at 9pm CET this Friday at the Palau Blaugrana in a Euroleague game.