Bartzokas: "I promise we will be fighting in every playoffs game we play" (vid)

The Olympiacos’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, pointed out the importance of the win over Barcelona and committed that he and his team will be fighting hard in the playoffs.

“Tonight’s game was not a must win game for us or for Barcelona, but you saw that a real battle took place, with hard defenses, intensity, aggressiveness, many fouls, contacts. It was a typical playoffs game, not one for the regular season. We played without two very important players, Sloukas and Fall and it’s important that we showed to have character and team spirit. Our defense, throughout the game, but especially in the second half, was really solid. We missed many free throws, especially in the third quarter, as well as critical lay ups, but once again we leaned on our defense and found the way to win the game. I really appreciate this victory, in the last game of the regular season, in front of our fans. What I can promise, regardless of who our opponent in the playoffs is, is that we are going to be fighting in every game”.

On his part, the Barcelona coach, Sarunas Yasikevicius, stated: “Congratulations to Bartzokas and Olympiacos for the win. In general, we did a lot of things we had planned for tonight, except for winning. We obviously wanted to win, but it was not important that we won at any cost. We have an important game in Andorra on Sunday and we tried to conserve strength in view of that game. We used two teens for quite a few minutes, which I believe to be really important for the future. Just like always in situations like that and in such a difficult atmosphere, we cannot accomplish all that we aim for”.

YOU CAN WATCH THE TWO COACHES’ STATEMENTS IN THE VIDEO THAT FOLLOWS