Bartzokas: «We must be focused and play better offence»
Olympiacos lost to details in Monaco, but has now focused on tomorrow’s (12/01) game against Virtus in Bologna.
“You always have to analyze what has happened. Unfortunately, though, we don’t have much time”, the coach of Olympiacos, Giorgos Bartzokas, got to explain. “We will be travelling in a short while. We are going to have one practice and then fly to Bologna. I think we were quite focused in terms of our defensive plan. Unfortunately, some details that played out against us, decided the game. Some missed free throws and missed lay-ups in critical parts of the game. The game was actually decided in one play. But, the shape the players are in and how well they get to shoot on one particular day is many times a result of circumstance. I’m happy with our defensive plan and how we had wanted to play the game, although we are upset by the loss. What we need to do now is focus on the next game. Virtus is a team that has talent and a very deep roster. If you take a look at who their players are and that players of certain high level don’t get to play at all at times, you will know what I mean. They are a team with ups and downs in their performance. For instance, they won in Barcelona, but lost to Zalgiris immediately after that. We have to prepare for the hardest possible scenario, the one that wants them determined following two back to back losses in Italy and Kaunas. I think they will push their limits to turn the situation in their favor. They are trying to make the TOP-8 and we have to remain very focused to play a better offensive game that the one we played last night and an equally good on in defense, if we want to win”.
The ‘red & whites’ had swept up the Italian team at the SEF (117-71) for the first round, however, just like the coach of Olympiacos stressed, tomorrow’s game is a completely different story. “That was a game that we got to play amazingly and they were not in a good day. At some points we had made out unreal buckets, we got to make the tough shots too apart from the easy ones. The difference opened up and Virtus quite the game. Virtus is taking the ball to the post a lot, they have a lot of players that attack with not facing the rim and our defense at the low post and the pressure on the ball, on the facilitators in the low post, has to be effective. It’s something we did well in the first round and we need to repeat tomorrow”.
On his part, Tarik Black pointed out: “We have to play our style of game. We made a lot of turnovers last night, lost too many rebounds. We did not do what we usually do as a team on the floor. So, I think that we simply need to play our game. We expect a very difficult game. They are a very good team and we have to be very serious and focused. We have to be ready to face a really very good team”.