«Absences are not excuses»
Olympiacos will be playing against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel on Thursday (24/1, 20.45 CET), without Law and Powell and Giorgos Bartzokas explains that no one should focus on the absentees.
The ‘reds’ are going to Tel Aviv for the victory and the Greek coach, together with Kostas Papanikolaou explain, just prior to the team’s departure, what the Piraeus team should do to leave Israel with a win.
The coach of the European and Greek Champions spoke:
About the injuries: “Law is a great loss. His absence is crucial to us, just like the one of Powell’s of course. This game is not a final, how could it be anyway, since we are only in the first round of the TOP-16. We are prepared to play in one of the toughest courts in all of Europe. Absences are no excuse to us”.
About the shape Maccabi Tel Aviv is in: “First of all, this great club, which Maccabi Tel Aviv is, cannot be an easy shot for anyone, no matter the shape they are in. No team in the TOP-16 is an easy opponent. They are under pressure, since they want to make the Final Four. We are also under pressure and we are waiting to see what will happen in regard to the objection we fined for the game against Siena. We also want to move as far as possible with the Euroleague”.
About the ‘keys’ of the game: “They play very fast paced in their home court and we need to control the tempo. We have to pay attention to rebounding and make as few mistakes as possible so as to keep control”.
About the game against Siena: “There are no hurtful losses for me. We were leading by 5 and everything unimaginable happened to make us lose. Both on our side and due to the timer. We had the game in Patrai in between and now we are focusing on the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv, we have Shermadini with us compared to the game two days ago, but we don’t have Law”.
KOSTAS PAPANIKOLAOU: “It’s an important game and very critical for us. It’s a turning point for us to continue in the group, and it is sure a victory will help with our psychology. Maccabi can win a game by 20 within a few minutes but they can also trail by 10 quite as easily. We don’t have to take a different approach to this game in regard to any other game. We need to begin from our defense and from that point on take our game on the floor. They are a team that hugely depends on the Americans and on man to man game, they are a team of tempo and we need to not let them play their game. These are the things we need to pay the utmost attention to”.