Olympiacos 95-74 Barça: European run ended

The five game winning run for Barça in the EuroLeague has come to an end. The blaugranes lost in Athens against Olympiacos (95-74) who made the most of a busy week for the visitors.

Good start

Two days after winning in Instanbul, the visit to another big European side started well. The blaugranes knew that the game could get away from them, so they adopted an intense approach and took an early 7-11 lead. Olympiacos then scored six, but Barça put up +4 (13-17).

Standing firm

When the Greek side are on the charge at home they are hard to stop, Moses Wright led an 8-0 to end the first period (21-17) and McKissic and Dorsey assisted well in the second. In fact, the lead was fairly big by three minutes before the break (39-28). That's when Jabari Parker and Kevin Punter stepped up, managing to claw the Greek side back to within five, but a Dorsey three-pointer made it 44-36 at halftime.

Penalised and exhausted

The resistance was there for Barça in the first half, but the third quarter told a different story. The Greek side were doing a lot of damage with offensive rebounds, fouls and making the most of second play from the free-throw line. This all meant that the score going into the fourth was difficult to turn round (65-50), especially as the recent physical expenditure was clearly taking its toll.

The home side smelt blood and a 5-0 did away with any hopes of a comeback, and the final quarter was a formality until the defeat was confirmed. The 5-2 record so far is still good, though, and now there are two home games to come at the Palau - firstly on Sunday (12.30pm CET) against Leyma Coruña in the Liga and secondly against Baskonia in the EuroLeague the following Friday (8.30pm CET).

Game stats

Olympiacos 95
Barça 74

Olympiacos: Walkup (8), Fournier (19), Vezenkov (18), Papanikolaou (3), Milutinov (12) - starting five - Williams-Goss (2), Wright (4), Vildoza (0), Fall (2), Dorsey (12), Peters (5) and McKissic (10).

Barça: Núñez (3), Punter (18), Abrines (0), Parker (9), Fall (0) - starting five - Anderson (5), Sarr (2), Vesely (6), Brizuela (4), Metu (12), Satoransky (4) and Hernangómez (11).

Quarters: 21-17, 44-36, 65-50, 95-74.

Referees: Sreten Radovic, Piotr Pastusiak, Saso Petek.