Blatt: «We need to reverse things in our favor»

Olympiacos will attempt to turn the page in Munich tomorrow against Bayern (20/11, 20.30 VET) and return to the path of success.

“They have played very well up to now”, David Blatt commented before leaving for Germany. “They are a team that plays hard defense and tried to put pressure on you and create situations through their defense. They are players that have been playing together for some time now and they are effective with their offense except for their defense. So, we need to be doing a very good job on both ends of the floor”.

Asked on how he plans to contain Nihad Djedovic, he replied: “He’s one of the many important players on the Bayern roster. He’s a player that can play many different positions, has a good height, however, he’s not the only one we need to contain. I truly believe we need to focus on our game, on what it is we need to do and how we need to be playing. I repeat, we need to do a good job on both ends of the floor to win”.

The reds’ haven’t been doing as well up to now, however, the Olympiacos coach is optimistic for the future… “First of all, I have to say that we are not obviously happy about it. But unfortunately, this is part of the season, you have to go through it at some point. You can only hope to have the ability to react, learn from it and turn the situation in your favor. As long as you move forward, results are going to be getting better and I believe this is going to happen”.

When he was reminded that in 2014, when he had won the Euroleague, his then team, Maccabi Tel Aviv had made an equally bad start in the competition, he commented: “I have been in so many teams all these years, that I cannot remember any one situation in detail. What you say is probably the truth… However, we are a young team and the schedule is pretty tough. My job is to keep everyone together, to learn through this experience, see what we have been doing good or not and move on successfully. I will certainly do that…”

On his part, Giorgos Bogris stated: “There is certainly tremendous pressure. We have had a bad run this time, however, we definitely want to close this cycle and begin with something new. We play a very important game in Germany, against a very good team that has been playing very targeted basketball and is tough. I believe we need to be making one step forward in terms of creativity, to be able to win a game that is very important to us”.

About the defeats against Panathinaikos, he commented: “They had been two totally different games. We lost our concentration in the second half and I think that we lacked the toughness so as to win the contacts with the opponent. Also, 20 offensive rebounds is a no on such a level. In the second game we had a targeted plan defense wise and we were doing better, we were shooting very poorly though and allowed Panathinaikos to win the game. However, it’s still November. We hope that these games become lessons”.

About the German team, he pointed out: “They are a very tough team, with very strong bodies in the 4 and 5 positions. But I think their guards are not that athletic, so that’s an advantage for us. We need to play good defense, run the floor and win a game in court that loves basketball and wants to win. We don’t have any room for any more defeats. However, this team knows how to react and I think that this game is a good chance to do that and start a good period for us”

*Axel Toupane did not travel to Munich due to injury.