“For the victory”
Olympiacos plays against Siena on Thursday (14/3, 20:45 CET) for the 11th day of the Euroleague TOP-16 and according to what both Giorgos Bartzokas and Doron Perkins have to say, the Piraeus team is traveling to Siena to get the victory.
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “A final is a game that is going to lead us to the play-offs. This is the most important factor of all. A victory in Siena is not going to seal qualification for us. We need the victory to take an important step towards qualification, but we are going to need more wins to actually achieve it. Printezis loss is a crucial one, since he had been in a very good shape lately. He gives us a certain amount of numbers when on the floor and a lot of energy. However, injuries are a part of the game and in basketball, with the continuous traveling and the fatigue from being always on the road is something very likely to happen, but we have to look ahead. We have had a wrong reaction against Siena’s zone defense in the first game. We had been leading by 5 only 35’’ before the end of the first game but then all kinds of unimaginable things happened to make the victory slip away from us. Many things have changed since then; it’s already been two months from that game. Siena is missing Hackett, who is injured. At that level, the teams cannot be at the same competition level at all times in the season and this is only natural. The thing is to manage and win games when you are out of shape”.
DORON PERKINS: “I think that every game is important from that point on. Now we face Siena and we have to do our job. The “key” for us is to play our game. To play defense, play hard and run the fast break. Giorgos’ absence (i.e. Printezis) hurts us, he gives us both points and energy, but we have so many good players with us that will step up and will try to cover for his void”.
*Giorgos Printezis and Vangelis Mantzaris are not traveling to Italy due to injury, while Giorgos Georgakis and Dimitris Katsivelis are also not making the delegation.