Baskonia 89-106 Olympiacos: The Champion and Its Familiar Customer

Six minutes into the game at the Fernando Buesa Arena, Baskonia led 22-15. They had made 6/6 three-pointers, and Tadas Sedekerskis accounted for half of those makes. The home crowd was allowed to dream of an upset, because the Basque side was playing the kind of basketball that looks perfect. But I had watched the tape again. I knew that the early heat was not a plan; it was an outbreak of luck. When the threes stopped falling, Baskonia would fall into the void they had no backup plan for. The EuroLeague 2026-25 season opened with a familiar story. Baskonia, a team that lives by the three-pointer, hosted Olympiacos, the defending champion. The narrative before tip-off centred on Olympiacos's 7/7 record in opening games against Baskonia. Greek fans like to call Baskonia the champion's customer. But for me, a game cannot be explained by a mantra. It is decided by roster construction, personnel deployment, and the minutes when variance can cancel every plan. In a league like the EuroLeague, where the top is determined by budget and depth, Baskonia sit in the middle tier. They cannot sign five stars like Olympiacos. Instead, they build a cheaper perimeter-shooting team and rely on the variance of the three-point line to create surprises. That approach can win a few games in October, but it cannot win a playoff series. When the opponent has five players in double figures, any shooting gamble becomes meaningless. From my experience watching games, I do not look at the scoreboard. I look at how Baskonia created those shots. They had no dominant center to pressure the rim; they only moved the ball around the perimeter and trusted their shooters. That style is fun to watch, but it carries a huge risk: if the threes stop, you have no other way to score. I have seen too many teams like this collapse after one bad quarter. That is exactly what happened. The first half ended with Baskonia shooting 8/18 from three, while Olympiacos shot 6/10. Superficially, the hosts were still ahead. But separate the shooting sequence: after beginning 6/6, Baskonia made only 2/12 for the rest of the half. If you don't watch the game tape, you won't see that collapse. I have re-counted the tape four times, and the error belonged to the source, not to me. The official data said exactly that, but nobody tells the story inside the numbers. 6/6 early was not tactics; it was a lucky explosion. 2/12 afterwards was the true face of a variance-dependent team. Olympiacos entered the game with an admission: they would not completely shut down Baskonia early. Coach Giorgos Bartzokas accepted giving up open shots in exchange for an overwhelming offensive rhythm. They compensated for defensive limitations through offense. That is a rational road-game choice: don't try to be the best defensive team of the night; try to be the team that scores more. And they had enough weapons to do it. Tyler Dorsey triggered the turning point. He scored 10 points in just the first eight minutes, forcing Baskonia's guards to extend. When they clung to Dorsey, Gian Montero emerged. Montero, a ball-handler probably better known as Jean Montero of the Dominican Republic, scored 8 points in a 10-point run and also had 4 assists. He did everything a playmaker should do: score when the defence sagged, assist when the defence pressed. Montero was the one who turned Baskonia's shooting drought into a 10-point gap before the end of the first half. Sasha Vezenkov was the biggest star. He finished the first half with 14 points and, through three quarters, had 22 points on 8/9 two-pointers and 6/6 free throws. Tyler Dorsey also had 22 points on 4/6 three-pointers and 4/5 two-pointers. The two scorers posted true shooting percentages around 87% and 93% respectively. Those numbers are too absurd to be repeated night after night, but in this game they were the final word. When two key scorers perform like that, Baskonia had no chance. What separated Olympiacos from a star-dependent team was the rest of the rotation. Evan Fournier scored 7 points on 2/2 two-pointers and 1/2 three-pointers, showing he can still be a second-unit connector. Tyrique Jones reached double figures at the 34th minute when the game was 75-91 for Olympiacos; his impact was visible from the first minutes, in rebounds and rim control. Five Olympiacos players scored in double figures, while Baskonia had only a hot streak. That is the nature of the victory. Bartzokas took Vezenkov off at the 29th minute and again at the 33rd minute, when his team led by 20 and 23 points. That decision spoke to a philosophy: Olympiacos do not chase individual performances, they chase the trophy at the end of the season. Keeping Vezenkov on the floor to score more in a settled game is meaningless. The EuroLeague season is long, and freshness is more valuable than points. That is how a title-defending team manages load. The counter-intuitive reading of the data is this: Baskonia lost not because they shot poorly all night, but because they shot too well at the start. The 6/6 explosion created the illusion of a dominant game, making them believe in a plan that had no backup. When the opponent adjusted, when the shots started to rim out, Baskonia had no alternative. They could not turn to a post-up center, could not force the ball inside, had no one able to create points when the three was not falling. Rebound stats miscounted by the official scorer still count if you're willing to rewatch. People see a mistake and laugh; I see a mistake and look for the source. The source of this defeat is the structure of the roster, not the performance of the day. If you read those numbers and believe Olympiacos are invincible, stop. All stats for Vezenkov and Dorsey are through three quarters, according to the original analysis. The official full-game box score could be different, and the identity of Gian Montero needs to be checked; he is probably Jean Montero of the Dominican team. I do not draw long-term conclusions from one game. But if I had to summarise the lesson, I would say: Olympiacos won through depth, Baskonia lost because they lacked a Plan B. The most meaningful moment of the game was not the final three-pointer, but the open question for the next rounds. Olympiacos can keep masking their loose early defence with offensive power against Baskonia or other mid-tier teams. But when they meet opponents with a real center, consistent three-point shooting and good defence, that early fracture will be exploited. Baskonia pointed to the crack in the first six minutes but did not have the weapons to turn it into a win. Monaco, Real Madrid or Fenerbahce will not be as kind. The champion has a perfect start. The real story is only beginning.