Bartzokas: «Paris will fight for the advantage, but they are not invincible»
Before Olympiacos' departure to Paris in view of the 25th round Euroleague game with the local team (05/02, 20:30 CET), our team's coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, analyzed the playing style of the upcoming oppenent.
Asked about the shortage in the guards (Luca Vildoza and Thomas Walkup are dealing with injuries), against a team like Paris and how Olympiacos plans to manage it, he said: "Truth is that if there was a game when we should have all our guards available, it's this one, because we need to guard players that are very creative and execute well at the same time. But Paris is not just that. They are also very strong with offensive rebounding, they are good with the defensive transition, they are generally a structured team, I had said as much when we first played them. We definitely need to stick to our plan, not get carried away, not allow them second chance balls which is a very important part of their game and of course to execute the right way on both ends of the floor".
On how the Paris team plays and how his team plans to intercept their game: "Everyone has played against Paris by now and understand what their game is. Of course, they are not invincible, there had been a time when they lost 4 or 5 consecutive games. The way the Euroleague is structured, there are no teams that don't lose games. Paris has weaknesses too, but I repeat, they are a team that plays a very hard tempo to follow, especially if you haven't had enough time to prepare. They are a very good team that I think will even compete for home court advantage".
On his part, Kostas Papanikolaou stessed the following: «We play against a team that has a very unique way of playing. As for the absentees, all teams deal with such issues from time to time... we have to do a better job so as to cover for the two guys (i.e Vildoza and Walkup). It's a challenging game, against a very particular game style that demands high concentration levels. One of they key issues is going to be rebounding. We have to control that area. We lost a lot of rebounds in the first game, many offensive ones... It's a 'battle' that will be played on the floor, we must remain focused, bring out energy and do our very best».