Bartzokas: «We should have controlled our emotions»

Olympiacos lost to Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade 91-80 and Giorgos Bartzokas spoke for the Press Conference held after the end of the game explaining the reasons for the defeat.

In his initial statement, the Olympiacos' coach said: "First of all, congratulations to Crvena Zvezda for the win. For us, the last quarter left us exposed. We were leading by 12, we simply had to control our emotions, avoid turnovers, not making hasty decsions. We simply had to be patient and find the open player, not executing in the first 6, 8, 10 seconds of the offense we were running.

We did not do those things and gave Zvezda the confidence to try for the comeback. They stole balls, went after the rebounds and struck in the fast-break. At the end, it was a close game, but we should have been more compact, especially in the fourth quarter, and mainly in how we were executing in offense, giving our opponent the opportunity to score so many points in the fast-break".

Asked about what he thinks about this season's Crvena Zvezda team, Giorgos Bartzokas said: "This team is more athletic, faster and more explosive than in previous years. They are confident in themselves. It's always hard playing here and winning here, they have also played confidently on the road. They control the game with very good point-guards, but it's still very early in the season. We are only at one third, we must evaluate teams until after half the season is gone. We'll see. All teams are tough, but Crvena Zvezda is a very good team and that is reflected in the rankings".

Then, the coach replied in regard to Jared Butler and whether posts referring that Olympiacos was looking to sign him which he refused due to not getting guaranteed playing time: "That's a half truth. Yes, there was interest on our part and we offered him a contract. He did not ask to be a starter or anything like that. We never actually spoke with him. His agent chose to bring him to Crvena Zvezda because he thought that they didn't have as many guards as we do. But as you can see, we now have only one point-guard, because Keenan Evans is injured and Frank Ntilikina is out. We are shopping for a player but the market is tough. It's hard to find players for this level. It's not easy to find a player for a team that competes for the top like Olympiacos does, if they don't understand how the EuroLeague works. But we are still looking".

Finally, questions about the excellent season Nikola Milutinov is having, Giorgos Bartzokas commented: "I'm happy for him. He's been having a very compact season, he's a very good rebounder and is shooting with high percentages. We must find our chemistry, we are short of quite a few guards and you should know that big players rely on the guards, on how mamy passes they will be handed. We are seriously lacking in facilitation now, we only have Thomas Walkup. The schedule is hard, playing Friday - Sunday - Wednesday. I'm very happy for Nikola, but we must evaluate each player in terms of how the team is fairing. I don't care about individual stats. If the team is successful, then all the players are successful".