Bartzokas: “Goss and Walkap can’t do regular training, then Milutinov-Petrushev return”

In his dominion Olympiakou in the fourth quarter, through his defense, o George Bartzokas the important one victory (74-69) over Partizan.

At the same time, the coach of the “red and white” emphasized the Nigel Williams-Goss and Thomas Walkup are still not 100% due to their injuries, while he revealed that the Nikola Milutinov will return to… Euroleague status in about a week, while Philip Petrushev in five to ten days.

Finally, the Greek coach spoke in the best words about the atmosphere in “Stark Arena”.

“First of all I would like to say that the atmosphere here is really impressive. Last year I had covid and I had not come between us a game with Partizan. Now I had the opportunity to understand by seeing it up close, how much the fans push their team. Because of that I think we were nervous in the first three quarters. We missed a lot of open shots, we had opportunities to finish in transition four on one, three on one, but we made mistakes. We were behind the score for more than thirty minutes. In the last quarter we dominated, the individual score in that period was 28-10 and that was decisive“, the coach of the “red and white” initially said at the press conference and added:

“It all started with our amazing defense that three players Papanikolaou, Walkup and Goss gave the team. They defended and limited the dangerous Partisan guards. Of course it was a team effort. However, I must say that Goss and Walkup cannot train during this period, because they are facing an injury problem. The fact that they gave this intensity for twenty minutes was decisive. Congratulations to my team. We still have two games ahead of us to complete the regular season and enter the playoffs with the best possible ranking. Good luck to Zelikos and Partizan».

Asked about Milutinov and Petrusev, he said: “The time has come for him to return (s.s. Milutinov). He has started individual and also participates in some five-on-five. He will likely play with contacts next week and will need another seven days or so to return to EuroLeague condition. We hope we will have him in the playoffs. As for Philip. He has bone swelling, it’s nothing serious, but it will take another five to ten days or so to come back».