Bartzokas: “Panathinaikos put pressure on us with the three-pointers – We have players who are not in good shape”

Giorgos Bartzokas emphasized that Olympic has many players not in good shape after the defeat by Panathinaikos in SEF.

“Congratulations to Panathinaikos, he made a very good appearance. He put a lot of pressure on us with the three-pointers in the first half, which happened because we were inadequate defensively. We let Panathinaikos find free shots and entered a regime of pressure and stress. In the second half we started with two missed 3-pointers from Dorsey and Fournier, we wanted to go possession-to-possession, but at times we were in a hurry. Panathinaikos played as a team and had patience, unlike us, and we unfortunately lost. In most statistical categories we were better, but there was a big difference in accuracy. We are trying to find our rhythm, we don’t have time and through the games we have to find our way of playing and become tougher defensively. We didn’t commit any fouls, just two in the first quarter. We avoided contact and Panathinaikos found a rhythm“, he emphasized.

When asked what he attributes to the difference in Olympiakos’ defense compared to last year, he replied: “With all of us having huge expectations from the transfers, we are trying to find a balance in how and who will shoot. We have fouls and we don’t do them because we want to stay in the game. I’m not saying our players are selfish. We will have to go through a stage to become solid, everyone doing what they have to do for the team to win. It’s not a reproach to the players, we’re short on assists, we’re short on the extra pass… Our players are not selfish, but we have to be solid, that’s what we have to do. We have several players like Fal who plays 3-4 minutes and is bent because he has been out for too long. Or Milutinov who asked us for change. Papanikolaou is tired, his blood tests showed it. We have several players who are not in good shape».

About the management after Friday’s match he said:We did a workout, mostly recovery and analysis. Like all teams we manage it. We have one day to prepare the match with Real, we don’t have enough time to show the match with Panathinaikos. The coaches’ hands are tied, at the moment the gymnasts are more important. It is important to be compact. We lost three away matches that we controlled and that put a lot of pressure on the team. We all have to work together as one because I’m sure our ceiling is very high».

Finally, he mentioned that Goss will be available for the upcoming Euroleague matches.