Bartzokas: «We have a lot of work ahead of us» (vid)

Olympiacos beat Zalgiris, however, according to our coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, the team still needs a lot of work.  

"As you saw, it wasn't an easy game at all, and that's something we were expecting. Zalgiris showed the kind of basketball they are going to be playing this season. It was obvious from the premiere game against Barcelona, when they were very aggressive, they played with physicality, they were aggressive with rebounding and went strong for any 50-50 ball, winning many of them. It was something we expected them to do with us as well. Also, you saw the numbers. Tonight, they had 19 offensive rebounds and played aggressively, they got rebounds and had second and third opportunities. If you are naive, the way we appeared to be tonight, thinking that we were going to get an easy win because we were leading by far in the first quarter. Also, maybe because we would somehow were going to win anyway. Despite leading throughout the game and having a chance to finish it in the fourth quarter, when we were leading by 12 - 13 points. However, instead of furthering the margin to 20, we made some hasty decisions, we shot the ball without even passing it once, we weren't returning to our defense in time and made mistakes in communication. When you don't put an end to the game early on, usually the team that makes the comeback has the momentum . They made some big shots, but at the end, we made some good decisions, played some good defense and got the win. I don't want to complain, nor whine, because each Euroleague win is important. But, we have a lot of work ahed of us, which is only normal. We have many players that are not at the same level in terms of physical conditioning, but, as time goes by, we will get there through practicing and games". 

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