Bartzokas: «We must switch gears»
The need for Olympiacos to switch gears and go to OAKA to play his game, was stressed by the 'red & whites' coach, Giorgos Bartzokas.
"Congratulations to Panathinaikos. They played a very good offensive game. My estimate is that it's obvious we did not manage pressure well in terms of what was in play for this game, resulting in missing open shots, 13 lost free-throws, missed lay-ups and making the wrong decisions defense wise at the end. We knew when the game is close, Panathinaikos mainly attacks with drives and passin in the post. We had to crowd our post and that's where we gave Panathinaikos many open shots. They deserved to win tonight. We must switch gears mentally and go to play our game there on Friday, hoping we are all going to respond better to the circumstances and demands of such a game".
About Nunn, he said following a relevant question: "He was obviously decisive. He scored 25 points, he made good decisions, made some critical buckets".
On whether there is any similarity between the 5th final game and the 5th playoffs game of the Euroleague against Barcelona, he made the following comment: "We are going to try and do our job in the last game. Play with less pressure and as should have played, because tonight we were very hesitant with many things. There are some pivotal plays in a game. Even Grant's three at the buzzer of the fist half and while we were leading by 10, has been decisive for me. Or with the offensive rebound when Lessort fall down and still gets to score. There have been some moments that things were against us, but they usually go to the side of the team that plays with confidence. We weren't good defense wise in the first half. Panathinaikos had 8/13 threes, we over-helped in many plays and left many players open or made the wrong switch and allowed players that are good shooters to find rhythm. Also, we should have been better with rebounding. Our big players should have defended better one on one, but also when opposing guards were driving. If you don't get to stop the opponent, because that's when you best them mentally, they are going to play with confidence when the right moment comes, because they have offensive talent. We had to have set the foundations of the game early on".