Olympiacos star guard Isaiah Canaan had another huge game in Palau Blaugrana against FC Barcelona. The dynamic scoring guard had 14 points including a crucial three during the fourth quarter to help Olympiacos erase FC Barcelona’s home court advantage in Game 1.
Despite beating the Catalans, Canaan believes that Olympiacos shouls improve going into the Game 2 of the series. As he revealed during an interview with Sport24, the Reds will have to be better from the free throw line next game.
The visitors went to the charity strip 27 times but missed nine of them. Canaan went seven times in the free throw line and uncharacteristically missed two of them.
“One of the things we definitely need to improve on in the second game is free throws because we had a lot of misses in the first game of the series.”
Olympiacos will head to Game 2 having the advantage after beating FC Barcelona on Wednesday. Filip Petrusev status will be uncertain as the Serbian went down with an apparent knee injury with the Reds waiting for the player to undergo further medical exams on Thursday.
Canaan’s found his groove in the right time for Olympiacos
Isaiah Canaan has been on a special form heading to the EuroLeague playoffs. He had 27 points in the final game of the regular season in which Olympiacos beat Fenerbahce to secure the 5th seed and a meet up with FC Barcelona in the postseason.
In his fourth season in the European level starting his EuroLeague career in UNICS, Canaan is averaging 9.4 points against FC Barcelona. His best game vs. the Catalans came in December 2021 when he scored 20 points as UNICS fell to FC Barcelona in OT, 111-109.
This season, the former Houston Rockets guard averaged 12.0 points on career-best shooting splits of 48/44/87 in 35 games in the EuroLeague. Canaan had double-digits scoring performances in three of Olympiacos 4 games.
The American is on an expiring deal this season and he’s set to become a free agent this summer.
