Euroleague opens with Real Madrid win over Olympiacos

A new historic era of Euroleague Basketball opened on Wednesday and Real Madrid and Olympiacos opened the 2016/2017 season. This will be the first campaign in top flight European hoops where all clubs are guaranteed to meet each other. The path to the Final Four in Istanbul is harder than it has ever been, but promises to be hugely exciting.

Real Madrid and Olympiacos are two of the biggest clubs on the continent, so this was a fitting way to usher in a new dynamic in European Basketball. Olympiacos has won this tournament three times, including back-to-back successes in 2012 and 2013. Real Madrid, of course, is the winningest club in Euroleague history with nine titles, the last coming in 2015.

However, there seemed to be a gulf in class between these two teams as Madrid stormed to an 83-65 home win to get its campaign off to a fantastic start. There is an awful long way to go in the season and Olympiacos will undoubtedly improve, but Madrid will feel it has sent a message this evening.

The hosts controlled the early minutes and looked sharper in offence during the first quarter, amassing 24 points and stopping Olympiacos at 17 points. The Greek giant responded in the second quarter as the situation was reversed. The Piraeus club notched 23 points to Madrid’s 18 points. Through the long break it was a tight contest, with Real Madrid leading 42-40.

Los Blancos began to pull away in the third act. A combination of solid defence under the post and unselfish attacking allowed the home team to race to a 20-13 period and a 62-53 advantage through thirty minutes. The Spanish juggernaut maintained the momentum in the fourth quarter, thwarting any idea of an Olympiacos rally to take the stanza 21-12 and claim a comfortable win.

Sergio Llull consistently troubled Olympiacos and managed to haul 22 points for Madrid. Llull’s efforts were followed by Luka Doncic with 11 points and Jaycee Carroll with 10 points.

Olympiacos managed just 29.2% from three point range as the visitors struggled from downtown. Matt Lojeski managed three of those triples on his way to 14 points in the losing effort, while Vassilis Spanoulis hit 12 points and Georgios Prtinezis 11 points.