Bartzokas: «We played the game the way we wanted to»
Giorgos Bartzokas spoke at the Press Conference held after his team’s victory over Panathinaikos for the 19th round of the EuroLeague.
In his opening statement, the Olympiacos head coach said: “First of all, Happy New Year to everyone. I wish health to you and your families. As for the game, it was the first one of the year, and the EuroLeague chose to schedule it now because it is a spectacular matchup. Of course, we are happy that we won, but at the same time we have to say that it was just a win. An important win for the team, but we are still in the first half of the EuroLeague season, so it is simply a victory worth two points.
We executed very well, moved the ball and found opportunities to score, but in the second quarter our execution was very poor. We should have played with the same mentality; sharing the ball, controlling the tempo, being patient and finding the open teammate, but we made bad decisions that led Panathinaikos to score in the transition and tie the game at halftime. I believe we were the better team; we played the game the way we wanted to, and in the end we won. Congratulations to Panathinaikos and, of course, to our players for the victory.”
When asked about the players’ performance in the second half compared to the second quarter, the coach replied: “In modern basketball, you definitely need an 8 or 9- or 10-man rotation. Many times, the substitutions I make are influenced by other factors, such as fatigue or fouls. The truth is that players with great quality did not read the game correctly in the second quarter. That allowed Panathinaikos to hurt us in the transition. Nunn played excellently, got into rhythm, even though he started off missing shots, and that hurt us later as well. We decided to play hedge out; he distributed the ball brilliantly to his teammates, but they were ‘cold’ and unable to score and decide the game, because for a long stretch Nunn was playing almost by himself. Even though they were good choices, it was difficult for them to make those shots. In the end, we missed free throws with good shooters and made two turnovers, although Panathinaikos played on the edge of fouling, on Dorsey and on the out-of-bounds play with Walkup. We made two mistakes we shouldn’t have, and the fact that we won the game was important.”
Regarding Sasha Vezenkov’s performance, Giorgos Bartzokas commented: “I don’t think there is anyone who questions Sasha’s quality. There are games when he will be very good and others when he won’t. If you look at the efficiency ratings, he is among the best. No one can play 90 great games, and when you rely on the team and the way we all play, others will step up as well. Dorsey was very good, Milutinov too. Everyone contributed with defense, playmaking, and execution. Even Fournier did what he needed to do. I’m not interested in numbers; what matters to me is that Olympiacos wins.”