«With the same energy and determination»
Following the wide victory against Valencia, Olympiacos will be hosting Zenit St. Petersburg at the SEF tomorrow (18/10, 20.30 CET), aiming to yet another positive result.
“Zenit is a team that plays hard and with intensity on both ends of the floor”, the reds’ coach, Kestutis Kemzura commented. “They try to destabilize their opponent when attacking, they exploit off your turnovers and missed shots and run the fast break at any given opportunity. They are strong inside the post in the offense with Ayon and Tomas. They have a very good scorer, Hollins, while they also play a good pick n’ roll with Renfroe and Albici, as well as with their other guards. I think the key is going to be how we are going to execute our offensive plays against their aggressive defense together with how we are going to be moving the ball. Also, scoring that comes from secondary opportunities (offensive rebounds) is also going to be a key element”.
Asked on how he feels that he will be leading Olympiacos’ bench for the second time, he replied: “It feels normal… There’s nothing more than focusing on the game, on what we need to be doing and how we are going to be doing it. Our plans are also on my mind, the first, second one, generally one for every situation”.
On what the different thing is Olympiacos will be presenting compared to the game against Valencia, the Lithuanian coach said: “We have had more time to prepare and I expect to have a better communication between us and execute our offensive plan. I want to see the same energy and determination. Zenit is a much tougher team than Valencia and that’s going to be a great challenge for us, that is how we are going to execute our offensive plan against the aggressive defense our opponent has been playing”.
«We need to put our fans into the equation»
The ‘reds’ guard, Antonis Koniaris, pointed out: “It’s going to be a tough game. For us, each week is a final. We play at home. We want to win again and put our fans into the equation. We have been working very hard the whole week to succeed our goal”.
Asked about the week’s practice sessions, he replied: “This week went just like the previous one. Practices are the same, equally strong. We have put some new elements in our game for the game against Zenit and we try to bring them out on the floor. Zenit is a very strong team. I think that compared to Valencia, they are stronger in how they play. They play tougher. We need to come out ready in terms of energy and strength”.