THE Olympic played with fire in SEF against Villerbanbut found the solutions in the final stretch of the race, winning 94-92 and picking up his fourth straight EuroLeague win.
Speaking at the press conference after the match, Mr George Bartzokas he referred to the bad approach that his team had in the match and the fact that they got carried away by the pace of the French, while he also spoke about the personality of the players, who came out in front of the difficulties at the end of the match.
“It was a match with stress tonight, after our winning streak. We didn’t have the right mentality at the start, Villeurbanne made 9/11 three-pointers. We committed four fouls in 17 minutes, we had opportunities to stop surprises, but we made them feel comfortable on the floor. That’s why we had to chase the score.
We had to calm down, look at each possession separately. From that perspective, I consider this victory very important. Congratulations to Villeurbanne, he played very well. He is a tough opponent. Malenton was excellent. The whole team was aggressive in rebounding, Enjay made 3/3 threes. They put pressure on us.
We have failed to have the right mindsetbecause you always set the tone of the game from the beginning. We didn’t do something well, we didn’t defend well on the ball, not even away from the ball. In the attack we were rushing, many believed that tonight they would feel better. We took the tempo where Villeurbanne wanted.
We failed, as it turned out, to convince the players that you can lose everywhere in the EuroLeague. Villerban was very good, she is athletic, she has balance, Malendon was fantastic. We had to be more ready to defend, not let him go deep. They put us in trouble, under psychological pressure, we were making hasty decisions under a state of not having a clear mind.
100% our fault that the match went to a high tempo. They were very aggressive on the ball, they made steals that you don’t expect. Our execution in attack was also problematic. Instead of taking the ball to the other side of the field, we wanted to finish immediately. When we passed outside, with patience, we had open shots. In general we were in a hurry, we were very wrong in the way we thought.
Comforting to win on your bad night. We had guys with personality, who made the right choices, like Fournier’s two-pointer off a pass from Vezenkov or Walkup’s three-pointer from the corner off a pass from Milutinov. If we’re going to play differently, we’re not as good a team as some people think. We have to play together, pass, move away from the ball».
Source: Sport Fm
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