Bartzokas and Milutinov talk about Game 4 vs Real (vid)
At the Media Day ahead of Game 4 against Real Madrid in Madrid, Olympiacos' coach Giorgos Bartzokas analyzed the reasons behind the Game 3 loss and focused on what the team must do better to win on Thursday (01/05, 20:00 CET).
Initially, when asked about how he saw Tuesday’s game and what the team needs to change for the upcoming match up, he said: “We are thinking of changing very few things. We need to be more aggressive on defense from the very first second because we had a good second quarter later on. It was a game with a lot of contact, very physical basketball. Real played the second half in a way that pushed us out of our comfort zone. We also didn’t execute well offensively. The most important thing, in our opinion, is that we committed 10 turnovers in the second half, most of which led to transition points. I think Real scored 42 points in the second half, and half of those came in transition. That means that from our poor execution on offense, we gave up fast-break points. We also hope to have Fournier with us tomorrow. It was a game decided by details. It was expected that Real would play like their life depended on it. But in these types of games, shooting percentages are roughly the same; what matters more is possessions. Meaning, you need to get steals, grab more rebounds, avoid turnovers, and execute the game plan with focus and composure.”
When asked how difficult it is to use lineups with strong perimeter defenders who may not offer the best offensive spacing, he emphasized: “It’s not difficult for me at all. I have over 300 Euroleague games, and if there’s someone who knows this team best, it’s me; I live with them daily in practice. Some things we plan work well, others don’t. In hindsight, we can say a lot of things, but this game was very physical and we wanted to match up with that. The game was decided by details, maybe two missed free throws, a missed layup, or a tough shot made by Real. As a coach, you can’t base everything on the last play. What we definitely need is to have ball handlers on the court, because the pressure they apply is intense. On the other hand, we made mistakes in transition. You could say that even our big guys didn’t score at all in the second half, which means they too need to demand the ball more and finish plays. It’s a combination of many things we need to get right.”
On Evan Fournier’s health status: “Fournier is taking anti-inflammatory medication and is doing better. We’ll see today and tomorrow. I can’t tell you with certainty if he’ll be available, but he might play.”
Milutinov: "If you want to beat Real in Madrid, you have to play with more focus."
On his part, Nikola Milutinov said: “We need to play much better than we did yesterday. We weren’t strong enough. They were much tougher than us, played much more physical. We made mistakes, gave away the ball too many times, and they scored easy points off that. If you want to beat Real in Madrid, you have to play more focused and more physical because they are a very good team.”
On how important it is to finish the series in Spain: “I was only here last year. But we’re not thinking about what happened before. We’re only thinking about now; what we can do in tomorrow’s game, and trying to finish the series here. We know it will be very tough for us, but we’re focusing only on what lies ahead.”
On the biggest challenge in facing Real: “They’re a really high-quality team. They finished eighth in the regular season, but I think they have the individual talent to go much higher. All of their players have won European titles, so they know how to play in these games. The regular season is one part of the year, but the playoffs are something completely different. They know how to handle these games and have the experience to do it. But I think we lost the last game because we made too many mistakes and gave up too many easy points. In these types of games, when you give up so many easy baskets, it’s very hard to win.”
FULL STATEMENTS IN THE VIDEO THAT FOLLOWS...