Bartzokas «We should be mentally and physically tough»
The Olympiacos’ delegation departed Tuesday afternoon (12/10) to Barcelona, where tomorrow (13/10, 21.00 CET) will be playing against the blaugrana for the 3rd round of the Euroleague.
“It’s still pretty early in the season, however, these games are always important”, the Olympiacos coach, Giorgos Bartzokas stressed. “I don’t think there are a lot of things you can say. It’s a difficult game, maybe one of the most difficult we have to play the whole season, given the dynamics of the opponent and the fact that we play on the road. We believe we are on the right path to improving our game, becoming better and if possible, challenge the win”.
When asked to pinpoint the differences of the ‘blaugrana’ compared to last season, he said: “They have more experience in the point position. Jakubaitis is young, there are also Calathes and Laprovitola. Their game is extremely targeted. We need to defend very well in the post, because they play back to basket, with Hayes and Mirotic being the main facilitators of this style, but also Davis. They are a team that plays very good defense overall and sets the game. Setting the game is going to be really important, that is whether we’ll be able to impose a speedy game and if we can play in the transition more than they can. In all of these difficult and important games, details are very substantial. Barcelona has a very big points percentage per possession. They execute well and they score. The coach is there for yet another season and they have assimilated his systems. It’s important for us to play tough, with contacts. In general, we have to be mentally and physically tough to cope with this game”.