Bartzokas: «We wanted to win for ourselves and our fans»
Giorgos Bartzokas made the following comments during the press conference following the end of the game vs Panathinaikos for the 30th round of the EuroLeague.
In his opening statement about the game, our team’s coach said: “I don’t have much to say. It’s a win that we needed. We played as a team and showed our character as a team. We shared the minutes and the ball. We wanted to win for ourselves and for our fans, who created an amazing atmosphere once again. Congratulations also to Panathinaikos, and good luck in the upcoming games.”
Regarding the 11 consecutive wins over Panathinaikos and the quality shown by all the players, Bartzokas emphasized: “About the streak, I don’t have much to say. Olympiacos is one of the top teams in Europe. Its percentage over all these years in the regular season, but also in the playoffs, shows the team’s quality. I’m simply here to guide. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. We don’t single out games against Panathinaikos or anything else. We want to make sure we are not bad winners. When we win, I want us to give credit to the opponent and continue our work with humility. There is no second unit in Olympiacos. It depends on the conditions that the game provides and on the team’s health, because today the team’s health had been affected. We need all the players. I think nobody played more than 21–22 minutes. Fournier played 25'. Everyone contributed in scoring, defense, creation, and with the basketball details that are always important, such as rebounding, helping in defense, etc. We feel happy because we won. I was sure we would play a tough game, a good game.Complacency is the biggest problem in professional sports, not only for Olympiacos but for all teams, and at least today we were not complacent.”
About the defense on Nigel Hayes-Davis, Bartzokas commented: “We hadn't aimed to limit one specific player or another. Oftentimes, you do a good job defensively against specific players. Sometimes they also just don’t have their best night. It’s not necessarily that everything that happens is only because of us, it also depends on the opponent. We didn’t target specific players. We had some tactical details regarding how we would defend certain players. Panathinaikos is a team that attacks a lot in isolation; it’s a team with great ability among its ball handlers. Knowing how Panathinaikos plays and how they practice, and when I say how they practice, I mean the players who have this ability with the ball in their hands, it becomes a team where, if you focus your defense on that aspect, things become somewhat easier afterwards, and that’s what we did. Sometimes the tactical approach works, sometimes it doesn’t. The human factor always plays an important role, not only for us but also for the opponents.”
Watch the full press conference in the VIDEO below