Bartzokas: «We must get ready now»

Olympiacos' coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, asked from his players to immediately get mentally ready for the games that follow...  

"It was the first game of the Greek playoffs. We played AEK that has been coping with a lot of problems lately. Nevertheless, I think that those teams, despite their problems, always find motivation to play against teams like Olympiacos. And since their players and coach have quality and pride, they remained competitive for 25 minutes. Our players were obviously not ready for something like this. In the first half, we lacked energy on both ends of the floor. We have to understand that we must play one more game on Saturday and then we are going to the Euroleague Final Four. Any player that doesn't push themselves to play with intensity, is not going to be properly prepared for the semifinal against Real. We can't say that we are just going to turn on a switch and magically change. I don't have any complaints practice wise, but in the last couple of months in all our games here at the SEF we have played basketball for only 15 or 20 minutes and it's not the time for such an approach. I understand we have had a tough and tiresome series to play, both mentally and physically, however, we need to get ready right now to play the following games". 

Olympiacos' Sports Director, Christos Bafes, made the following statement: "I would like to ask both you and your colleagues abroad and our fans on social media to stop with the speculation about new signings. They are going to have all the time in the world after June 16, if this is going to be the day our last game is played, to take up our beloved sport, that of speculating about signings. All that's been reported about players Olympiacos is supposed to be interested in right now is false. The team is only thinking about the final 4 and the playoffs after that. From now on, and I'm putting that on record, any name reported in relation to Olympiacos is a lie".