His first victory in this year’s Euroleague took place on Friday night (11/10) o Olympicwho prevailed with difficulty in SEF with 74-68 of Zalgiris for the 2nd matchday of the competition.
Speaking after the end of the match at the press conference, the coach of the “red and whites”, George Bartzokas, he stood on the bad image of his team, stressing however that the what was wanted at the given moment was victory, which came.
At the same time, he referred to the “building” of the new team and the fact that it needs time and a lot of work to bond as a whole and be able to play the basketball it can based on its quality.
Giorgos Bartzokas’ statements in detail:
“First of all, as you saw, it was not easy at all. A match as we expected it to be. Zalgiris showed in the previous match against Barcelona what kind of basketball a team that chases the balls, tries for the steal and tries for all the possessions will play this year. He goes in all phases very aggressively. We were a bit naive at that point and didn’t play as well as we should have. Despite this, we always had the lead in the score. We had the chance and the possibility to take the difference to 20 points but we had strange decisions, we were in a hurry, we shot without giving a pass, we made mistakes in communication and Zalgiris stayed in the match. And when the team gets back on the scoreboard and the match becomes close, it automatically gains momentum. He hit some great shots but in the end we made the right decisions.
I don’t want to be sad or whine about a win. Every Euroleague win is important. We have a lot of work ahead of us, which is normal. And rest assured that we will succeed. We have many players who are not at the same level of fitness and readiness. And that’s the point. To bring them all to the same level of fitness and readiness. But it takes time.
Regarding the statistics of Olympiakos, I would say that everything bothers me. The game becomes effective when everything that happens is related to the rhythm. When a team plays at a standard level. In how he moves and how he passes the ball. When does he have patience? All this is eliminated. They were not normal numbers for us. We have players who are now coming into the team and are pivotal. It all bothers me but there is no other way than to work and progress. I have not seen any team impress with their performance in the Euroleague. Even teams with two wins have had mediocre performances. There is not currently a good level of performance of the teams, which of course will improve later depending on the work the players and coaches do, we all have great expectations for the team, but the teams are slowly being built. And this is the way I know too.”
Source: Sport Fm
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