Bartzokas: «We must respect both the opponent and our effort»
Olympiacos will be hosting Villeurbanne tomorrow (29/03, 20.00 CET), for the 31st round of the Euroleague, aiming to get the win that will secure him home court advantage in the playoffs.
Isaiah Canaan will not be available for the game, since he’s in the States on leave to attend the birth of his second child.
“The mind always wants to get idle. When the chance is there, it takes it. Because the season is long and packed with games, there is fatigue, it’s only natural”, Giorgos Bartzokas replied to a question on whether there is a chance for his players to have ‘relaxed’ after qualifying for the playoffs. “Our job, the coaches’ job, as well as of those on the team, is that this doesn’t happen, because we have four games ahead of us, three at home and we want to finish with the best possible record. We’ll see where we get to finally land. The fact that we were the first team to secure the playoffs and we only need one win for home court advantage is very important to me. From there on, we take nothing for granted. Each game is very difficult regardless of the opponent having a ranking interest or not. We don’t forget that we lost to Villeurbanne in the first round, in a game that we were in control of and we had even led by 20 points only 15 minutes before the end. They are a team that has talent and athleticism. They played with confidence up until the end and we finally lost to a buzzer beater. So, like I said, nothing is a given and we have to be ready for tomorrow. No one and nothing is given to you…”.
Analyzing the French team, the ‘red & whites’ coach pointed out: “Villerubanne is a typical team of the French League that has many athletic players, they have seven footers like Fall, who mainly plays close to the rim on both ends of the floor and because he’s so tall he creates problems for you. From there on, they have De Colo, who, as you all know, is very skillful and can easily score. They are a well set team by their coach. They are a good team and they don’t have a better winning record due to details. However, they have won big games during the season. Euroleague is always offering the players the chance to be motivated, because they all want to be playing well in these games, but they also all have a motive to play well against us. For a long time now we haven’t played against a team that lacked eagerness. They all play at 100%. So, we have to give the opponent due respect and also respect our effort and play a good game. We have to play well on both ends of the floor”.