Olympiacos: Crucial foul, pick-and-roll lock from Brown and offensive rebounds

the Olympic She showed character in Belgrade. Playing against the motivations Maccabi got Big win in the eighth round of the Euroleague He looks more optimistically about the future.

the Sport24 Analyzes the victory of the “red and white”.

Walkup’s defense of Brown turned things around

With Wade Baldwin sidelined, Lorenzo Brown was supposed to take more initiative. He is also the driving force for Maccabi, and everything starts from him in terms of organization and execution. The American guard according to Hudl Instat runs on 40.7% of his possessions in Pick and Roll mode (6.2 per game), scoring 0.89 points per possession. Against the “red and white”, one number rose sharply (the number of attempts) and the other (the number of efficiency) followed the opposite path.

According to Hudl Instat, Brown (5 points on 2/13 shooting) had 9 possessions in Pick and Roll situations and scored just 2 points (0.22 per possession)! Here’s Brown’s Shot Chart.

With a circle for well-aimed shots, with an “x” for missed shots

Here’s how he was attacked:

Olympiacos wanted to stifle Brown in the pick and roll, and that’s what he did, first with Walkup and then with Whoever took over the marker duty (after Olympiacos had a change of screens between regional matches).

Given Brown’s reputation for his love of dribbling from mid-range, Olympiacos opted to flat-mark the Pick and Roll (Fall was a little behind), with Walkup breaking the screen and running the “Shadow” (translation: Shadow), staying on Brown’s hip, forcing him to make difficult shots. . Here is an example.

Brown plays Pick and Roll, with Walkup ready to close the distance between them and put his body on him to break the screen. Val stands in the line of fire.

Brown passes, but Walkup breaks the screen, with Fall staying in place.

Brown takes a shot under pressure after Walkup manages to hold on to his hip and tags him

Admittedly, Brown also missed shots he could make. However, Olympiacos’ pressure on the Maccabi star (who started with an over pla, as they did not allow him to get to the ball) was perfect. Even Brown’s only pick-and-roll basket came on a very difficult layup under pressure from Lountzis.

McCabe found solutions at some point. Tamir Blatt caused damage by hitting Olympiacos Flat, and Sorkin got into the gaps in the defense and scored. But Olympiacos took Maccabi’s momentum out of the match.

Vale, who was Olympiacos’ beacon in attack and offensive rebounds

In attack, the Olympiacos philosophy is divided into two parts: in what the “red and white” played while Williams-Goss played with Peters, and in what they played after the former’s departure due to injury and the team’s expulsion. Last (only in the third period) with 5 fouls. As long as Olympiacos had the two Americans, he had movement in attack, he had free shots, and he had distance. And when he lost them, he turned into Vale (10 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, giving Olympiacos another 10 points).

Having lost important players, Olympiacos bet on Vale’s size. Almost all the good things that happened in the second half came through the Frenchman. Fall took advantage of his size, scoring and scoring or passing at the right time. The Frenchman was the beacon of the “Red and White” attack in the last 15 minutes of the match, as he was directly or indirectly responsible for 15 of the “Red and White’s” 28 points in the second half (8 of his own and his own). Another 7 assists out of the 3 he distributed in the same period).

All the attention Vale was attracting also changed the logic of Maccabi’s defence. As the Israelis tightened the noose around it, spaces opened up. This had the effect of spoiling Maccabi’s defensive rotations and thus spoiling the squares that had to be executed. This largely explains the 18 offensive rebounds of Olympiacos, from which the “red and white” gained 19 points, breathtaking in critical points.

A precious victory

Olympiacos can claim that with this result they have somewhat made up for their home loss to Baskonia a week ago. The fact that this win came on a night without Milutinov, McKissick, the injured Williams-Gus and the early departure of Peters – their best offensive player up until then – gives this result even more value.

Olympiacos won because their defense shut down Brown. Because he saw Shikma coming back and giving the things. Because Walkup looked a little more active, because Lountzis gave valuable minutes, because Papanikolaou was all over the place again. Because Val mentioned Val.

Now the “red and white” are waiting for their next match against Red Star. A win there would bring a better balance for everyone, enabling them to look more optimistically to the future.