Bartzokas: “A demanding game”
Giorgos Bartzokas and Matt Lojeski talked about the game against Fenerbahce/Ulker (28/2, 19:00 CET) for the Euroleague TOP-16 second round premiere.
The coach of the European Champions originally talked about the introduction of Moon in the Euroleague roster. “When a player enters the rotation, someone else has to leave. That’s a problem we have to face anyway. What we want is to be healthy since we are entering the final lap for the TOP-16 since the second round is beginning”.
As for the fact that the Turkish team is desperate for this victory and if this makes the mission of Olympiacos even harder, our coach answered that “at this moment everybody is desperate, no game is indifferent and no team either. Even Laboral Kutxa that is left behind has a chance to qualify”.
In regard to the game against Fener, the Greek coach said that “it is a demanding game; there are new facts for Fener, since they have acquired two new players. We have to play as good a game as the one we played for the first round”.
Asked whether his team is extra motivated to play against Zeljko Obradovic, Giorgos Bartzokas was clear: “for us no, there is no extra motivation. We want to keep Olympiacos at a high level and that’s our greatest motivation”.
About the addition of Giorgi Shermadini, he said that “we decided once again taking into account what’s best for the team. Olympiacos needs to remain at a high level; it needs to be on top. We want this addition to make us better and it was through that prism that the transfer was made. He’s a player that helped us a lot last year; he did not stay with us in the summer due to the unrelenting position of his agent during the negotiations. At this moment, we are signing a player that is going to re-enforce us and with the lowest possible risk, since he was with us last year and we all know one another”.
MATT LOJESKI: “I believe it’s going to be a different game in regard to the one of the first round. First of all, it’s going to be a game on the road, a more defense focused one compared to the previous one when the score was really high. It’s going to be a very difficult game; we need it a lot, just like they do. It’s going to be a big game for both teams. We need to be extra careful in our defense; we need to start from there. We are becoming better with Moon in our roster, he brings elements to the team that we were lacking”.