Athinaiou and Johnson-Odom talk about Khimki

Olympiacos hosts Khimki Friday night (5/2, 21:45 LT) and as Darius Johnson-Odom and Giannis Athinaiou stressed, the game against the Russian team is extremely important.

Giannis Athinaiou pointed out that “we cannot call the game a final, but we definitely want to win. We have three losses in a row. It’s a tough game. We need to return in the Euroleague as well. I think that the game against Khimki is very decisive in that aspect. We have prepared very well, we know that Khimki is a very talented team, they are in a very good situation and has great momentum. What we want is to play very strong, bring our plans on the court and take a positive result”.

Next, the international guard explained that “we need to focus from the first to the last second on our plan, because that’s the most important. We need to bring a lot of energy on the court. Khimki plays with energy and we need to match it up. That’s of no concern to us. We need to care about how we play and how important the game is for us. We know we haven’t played the way we want in the TOP16 and what matters the most to us is our team and how we play on the court, because how the game goes is up to us”.  

On his part, Darius Johnson – Odom stressed that “it’s definitely a great game for us. We play in our home court and in front of our fans which gives us an advantage. We need to do what our coach asks from us and play the best way possible”, while he was then asked about what the team needs to change to return to positive results in the Euroleague… “I think that it’s a matter of energy. We have great players, but we need to play with a lot of energy, just like we did in the game against Panathinaikos. Make the game easier for us. We need to have energy on both ends of the court”.