Bartzokas: "One shot decided the game"

Giorgos Bartzokas concluded that the defeat to Real came due to lack of energy and bad percentages from the perimeter. The coach of Olympiacos nevertheless seemed certain that his team is going to get better and return to the high level they had been before COVID hit them.  

“First of all, I would like to congratulate Real on its victory. It was a tough game, just like we had expected it to be. The important thing for us was to be able to control our feelings. After the first half, we knew that Real was going to force a lot of pressure and their fans would help them get back in the game. We had to have been more consistent, especially with our defense. We gave them a lot of offensive rebounds and we certainly had to shoot with better percentages. Despite having had six turnovers in the whole game, we have had a very low three-point shot percentage. If you want to beat a team that has Tavares in its lineup, you need to be shooting better than we did tonight and have luck. All in all, I think the game was decided by one decision, one shot. We had the chance, we facilitated an open shot that could have given us the lead again, but we missed. We finally lost by 7 points”.

And concluded: “For us, after a total of 13 COVID cases during the last 20-25 days, it was important that we remained competitive. We lacked energy in the second half and especially in the fourth quarter, which for me, was a problem caused by COVID. However, game by game, practice by practice, we are going to get better and compete at the highest level”.