The most surreal of games: Olimpia plays well, runs, scores, defends, rebounds the ball, gets a lot from everyone and take a 27-point lead. A heavy 27-point lead, in the heart of the second half, which began with an 18-point margin and continued holding the opponent scoreless for another four minutes. There would be the conditions to dominate the game, to dig an important margin even in perspective. Even Zalgiris’ first attempt at a comeback seems willing but unrealistic because it serves above all to reduce the gap. Olimpia rotates its men and uses its leaders when needed. When the gap from 27 up drops to 11, Shavon Shields takes the team by the hand, scores twice and establishes a 15-point margin with five minutes to go. It looks like a dead and buried game several times.

Instead Olimpia stops playing, stops moving the ball and scoring, produces trivial turnovers and defensively “watches” the game: they allow open three-pointers or easy drives at the rim. When suicide is certain, the teamno longer has the breath, the energy or even the fouls to be resuscitated so it comes down to terrible defeat for morale, 85-82 Zalgiris. Furthermore, Ousmane Diop “climbs” on an opponent’s foot and sprains his right ankle which will be re-evaluated over the next hours.

“We played the best 25 minutes of our season, what happened next is horrible. We have to be honest an apologize. They way we lost is not acceptable. We allowed everything, we didn’t do anything offensively. We can only apologize, keep our heads down and get back to work,” Coach Ettore Messina said.