Blatt: «Zalgiris Kaunas is a team of quality»

Olympiacos plays against Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania on Thursday (06/12, 19.00 CET), for the 11th round of the Euroelague, and David Blatt and Axel Toupane explain what the 'reds' need to do to get the victory.

The 59-year old coach was originally asked on whether he is troubled by the fact that Olympiacos will be playing in a very "animated" court, like that of Zalgiris. "The most important thing is Zalgiris has been playing very well recently. And they've been proving their quality for many years now. We need to worry more about what they've been doing on court, besides the fact that they have a very strong home court and fans that zealously support them.

We are more worried about how we are going to be playing, rather than them, regardless of the atmosphere that is going to prevail", he replied.

He was then asked, on whether the 1-5 record Zalgiris has at home in this season's Euroleague, will give extra motivation to the hosts. "This means nothing. We all need to understand that with the Euroleague all games are important and competitive, many things can change each passing week, what has happened in the past and a few days before is not all that important, you only have to focus on what's ahead. Respect yourself and respect your opponent, that's the secret».

On whether he has thought about he's going to be facing a team that plays quite strong with a lot of contacts, the Olympiacos coach pointed out «this is true, many teams play the same way and we hope that we continue playing the way we've been playing during the past few weeks, to be competitive and ambitious, and be patient with our game».

On how Jasikevicius has been doing up to now as a coach, Blatt said that «Saras has done a great job with Zalgiris, I'm not surprised by it, I had expected so. He's smart, special and he has always loved to play a different kind of basketball,

that's what he has been doing as a coach and I'm really not surprised by it. He has been working hard and had done great work up to now».

Τoupane: «A special game for me»

Axel Toupane was playing for Zalgiris last season and the French player was naturally asked about his return to Lithuania. «It's a great place to be playing basketball. A terrific gym, an amazing home court with fans that support their

team and it's really great to be playing there. We'll try to win, that's what we want. We know that they play aggressively, on both ends of the court, we need to be ready for that. On our turn, we need to be ready for that and stop them to win».

As to whether he is going to be playing, since he's still not 100% ready, the French forward said "I still don't know if I'm playing or not, but it's really special to me that I'm going back there. It's really special to me, regardless of me playing or not.
I'm not 100% ready, but I'm optimistic that I will make it».