Bartzokas: "We did not have patience"

Olympiacos failed to get the win in Istanbul and that was, according to our team's coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, due to the fact that his players did not have patience and they also had to deal with the amazing night Beaubois, Clyburn and Misic were having.

"Just like we had expected, it was a very difficult game. A game that we should have played at the same level during all of the forty minutes, which we did not do. For three quarters we controlled the game, were leading by ten, we passed the ball quite well, played good defense, but then we got hasty. We got many off ball possessions in the offense instead of continuing passing the gall. We did not have the necessary patience and at the same time, three very talented players, Beaubois, Clyburn and Misic were making big shots... Many of them were at the buzzer which really hurt us. We have to congratulate them, because they finally found the way to win. We have to immediately return to work and analyze what it is we should have done better, so as to win the game at forty minutes and not control it for thirty".

Asked about what went wrong and his players were not thinking straight after a certain point, he replied: "First of all, it has to do with the talent of the three players I talked about before. All three of them are guards that hold the ball, make decisions and it's hard to find three defenders to play at the same time and defend well. I think that we were compact with our defense for thirty minutes, but on some one-on-one pull up jumpers that Clyburn took had an impact on the team's mentality. When the opponent makes such big shots, it is usually that your faith in your abilities begins to decline. Nevertheless, I'm satisfied with my team. We have been doing quite well up to now. Tonight we played against the European Champon that right now is in a very good shape. We will continue doing our job. We have to evolve more of our players, we have to develop and improve our game and reach our goal which is to make the playoffs. It's not an easy target at all in such a competitive competition like the Euroleague".

Finally, asked about the current ranking, he answered: " I honestly don't look at it. If you look at the standings, you will see a number of good teams that are not even among the top 8 and the schedule is really difficult.  I have a philosophy that I try to pass to my players, that we are not interested in either the standings nor the long-term schedule. We only have to look ahead at the next game. On Monday, we have a very demanding game for the national league agaisnt Panathinaikos and then we have to play against Virtus. There are no easy games, there is no opponent you can underestimate. Everbody's got talent, everybody's got the knowhow.  We have to do our job and I'm certain that we will do it. We have a good team and we have proved so many times this season".