Bartzokas: «Each title is a strong motive for our team»

In the Press Conference following the win over PAOK, Olympiacos' coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, commented on our team's performance against the 'black and whites', the upcoming Greek Cup and also talked about the status of Thomas Walkup's and Luca Vildoza's injuries in view of the Final 8. 

His initial statement was: "Congratulations to PAOK, they are doing a very serious job this season and that's why they rank where they are. There is a chance we play them for the Greek Cup and I hope we play better than we did in the first half of the game today, which I believe we will do. When we were trailing by one at half time, we decided to play a more 'normal' kind of basketball, become faster, play with more intensity in defense, pass the ball better and finally receive 25 points in all of the second half, which was the key that gave us the win". 

Asked whether Thomas Walkup will be available for the Cup games, but also about how bad Luca Vildoza's injury is (he was injured during the game against PAOK and left the game), he said: "Walkup is practicing solo and is getting better every day, he will be with us for the Cup and will gradually get minutes, except for anything out of the order happening. Vildoza will be getting an MRI, he has pulled a hamstring. About who's playing, we'll see how Vildoza is and we'll decide in the next couple of days".  

About the Cup and how important the focus the team showed in the second half was: "I want to be a realist. The important thing is what we do on Wednesday and Friday. Even we lost today, nothing actually changes in regard to our final rankings. Each title is a strong motive for our team, we have proven that and we'll go as best prepared as possible with those who are healthy and we will fight to win. If we do, this will be the second title of the season. In the second half we were under pressure because we would have lost the game if we continued 'walking' instead of playing".