Bartzokas: «It’s a very important win»
Following the win in Kazan, the coach of Olympiacos, Giorgos Bartzokas, congratulated his players and the coaching team, at the same time stressing the need for everyone to remain humble.
“Congratulations to my team, both to the players, as well as to the coaching staff, for this great win. Unics is a team I really appreciate. We got a very important win, against a team that has a very good momentum. A team that has beaten here Real Madrid and Armani, that’s why our win is so valuable. The most significant factor is that we have had 10 assists more than Unics and seven rebounds. Despite having missed a lot of open shots and having mere 24% in threes, I want to say that some of these shots had been completely open and perfectly solid choices. We succeeded in winning the game. We made a lot turnovers at the end, we made tactical errors, we were rushing the win, however, what counts is that we won on the road. It was the second one in arrow, following the one against Armani and that creates a positive vibe within our team. It gives us confidence, but, we need to remain humble, continue having our feet firmly on the ground and not forgetting that each Euroleague game is difficult, crucial and significant”.
When asked about the plan in regard to overtime, he replied: “We had the chance to finish the game before it went to the overtime. In the extra five minutes time, we said that we had to focus on our defense, especially on Kanaan and Hezonja and stop Brown from facilitating. If you take a closer look, we forced Unics to play without a lot of ball movement, a lot off ball situations. We moved the ball in offense and found open players. We have good shooters and good scorers in every position… We did not show that with 24% in threes, but we were consistent on both ends of the floor and got the win. The game was decided in the final play. Sometimes, it’s a matter of luck, one decision, one rebound… In general though, we have faith in our team. We believe we have a good team and when the games are close we play as a team”.