Bartzokas: «It’s not just James»
Giorgos Bartzokas talked about Olympiacos’ game against Monaco (23/03/2022, 21.00 CET) for the 31st day of the Euroleague and explained that Monaco does not only rely on Mike James.
The Greek Cup Winners have still three games to play till the end of the Regular Season and the Greek coach explained that ‘we are going to do the best we can in the three remaining games. There are more for the rest of the teams that compete for the home court advantage with us, but we are only looking at our team and the first game of the two that we play in France is a very difficult one against Monaco. Monaco is a very strong team, they have been playing very well lately, which is obvious by their results. They rank high in many statistical categories in terms of offense, they are the best team in the Euroleague in scoring, twos, points in the fast break and controlling the rhythm is going to be crucial. If we don’t control the tempo and the game goes to very high scoring, then Monaco is the favorite to win the game”.
The next question was about how the ‘reds’ plan on stopping Mike James with the 56-year old coach stressing that “everyone can lose to everyone else and this season’s Euroleague is proof enough. We don’t think at all that Monaco is only one player. They are a team with a very deep roster, in France they mainly use players that don’t have too many minutes with the Euroleague, we think we have a lot of talent, they have many scorers, Montejunas is very talented, Bacon scores a lot and of course it’s not just James. Sasha Obradovic has put his own brand on the team since he went there and on the way they play. It’s not going to be an easy game at all”.
Asked about the expulsion of the Russian teams from the remainder of this season’s competition and what the impact of that decision is going to be for Olympiacos, the Greek coach underlined that “it’s going to have an impact on the competition because they were three teams in the playoffs, but it will have a great impact on the teams that were ranking below the eights seed, because these teams are once again in the trajectory to win a playoffs spot. Our mission is not over yet, it’s going to be over with the last game of the season for the Euroleague and we hope this is still a long way from us. The certain thing is that we have secured the playoffs and this is a very important achievement for the team, but we have motivation and hunger for more things down the road”.