Bartzokas: "We won under difficult circumstances"

The Olympiacos’ head coach, Giorgos Bartzokas made the following statement following the win against AEK at Ano Liosia.

“Congratulations to the team. We won the game under difficult circumstances, playing for 12-15 minutes. AEK played an amazing game, they shot the ball very well with Rautins who had 7/8 at some point. They put a lot of pressure on us, we had to play well to win the game. It was an interesting experience for us, we are going through a difficult period indeed, we have too many players missing, however, when the guys get back, we are going to be playing well again”.

Asked what changed and Olympiacos was able to get back from trailing by 16, he replied: “I always say that the opponent is also playing. We have to give credit to AEK, I have already done so. They played without pressure, they had nothing to lose. On the contrary, we were sluggish and made a lot of wrong passes. We needed to be patient. AEK is a particular team, the big guys shoot the ball and play facing the basket. When we switched in the screens, that’s when we put a stop to their perimeter players from scoring. When we moved the ball, Sloukas got to play well as well, he scored threes or found our big guys open and we won”.