Bartzokas: "Let’s not deviate from our plan"
Olympiacos left for Monaco, where tomorrow (10/01, 19:00 CET), will be playing against the Monegasques for the 18th round of the Euroleague.
“I think we are at a point in the season when everyone is trying to get better. We are also trying to improve our team game”, was the comment Olympiacos’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas made before continuing: “When circumstances allow it, we play well. There have times we haven’t and we have paid for it. An example is the first round game against Monaco, when coming from four straight winning games, three of which in Spain – if I remember correctly – we underestimated the game and did not play the way we should have. That’s our priority. To play the way we have to so as to win a game like that”.
Analyzing Monaco, he stressed: “I don’t think they make it difficult only for Olympiacos, they make it hard for everyone. They have great quality, they are very skilled at iso. I mean players that in iso situations, like Okobo and Mike James, are very good. They have very athletic big players. Their perimeter players, like Dialo, can for example, play a very significant defensive role. That means they are a team that you need to absolutely stick by your plan to win. To not deviate from it at all so as to manage to play in a very particular gym as a well. The gym is small and the atmosphere is kind of different from other Euroleague games. Anyway, it’s a demanding game and as we all understand, we need to play well to win”.
Talking about the fact that in this trip also, Olympiacos is going to have their fans by their side, he said: “We are very happy about it! It’s a good thing. Especially trips with two back to back road games like this one. It’s a nice trip, if of course it’s accompanied by good outcomes. The touristic factor is nice, the common time we have with the fans are nice, but we need to have good outcomes for the trip to be perfect”.