Bartzokas: «We weren't able to control our emotions» (vid)

Olympiacos head coach Giorgos Bartzokas, in the post-game press conference following the Final Four semifinal, congratulated Monaco on their win and explained the reasons why his team failed to reach the final.

He began by saying: "We have to congratulate Monaco. They really played hard for 40 minutes and deserved the win. It’s a painful loss for us, especially the way it happened. We should have played in a completely different way. We were the team with the most assists throughout the season, and tonight we had only 10. We shot 18% from three-point range. We played under enormous pressure and failed to handle it. We couldn’t control our emotions, couldn’t play as a team, couldn’t share the ball. We needed to be much more aggressive, both defensively and offensively. At the same time, we needed to be more patient; to move the ball around. We scored 68 points, with one player scoring 30 of them. That means something went very wrong for our team."

When asked about the mental and emotional fatigue of most players, he responded: "We scored 68 points, with one player putting up 30. That clearly indicates something went very wrong. We started the game missing four three-point attempts. If you take Fournier out of the equation, we were 1-for-19 as a team. In these kinds of games - and I’ve said this to the players before - stats don’t matter. Nothing else matters. The only thing that counts is playing according to your philosophy, and we didn’t do that. Throughout the game, we were rushing everything."

He added: "Today was a very emotional game. It was our fourth consecutive Final Four, and sometimes the desire to win is greater than clear thinking. It seemed like many players wanted to end the game too quickly. But these games are decided possession by possession. We didn’t play the way we know, or the way we’ve trained to. In the end, we played the way the opponent is used to playing.