Κemzura: "Composed and focused against CSKA"
Olympiacos left today afternoon (28/10) with a charter flight to Moscow, where they will be playing against CSKA on Wednesday, (30/10, 18:00 CET), for the 5th day of the Euroleague.
“CSKA is undefeated until now, they are the European Champions and it is going to be a tough game”, the ‘reds’ coach, Kestutis Kemzura stated. “There are definitely no easy games, however, at this stage, we focus more on ourselves. We need a good, composed game. That’s why we have been practicing and trying to correct our mistakes and the bad periods we have had in previous games. We need to be firmer and remain focused for 40 minutes. CSKA plays simple, but they have amazing executioners. So, it’s going to be very important and at the same time, a great challenge to us, to stop them at one on one, just like stop their many pick n’ rolls. We need to avoid turnovers, because they are going to punish us right away. We should be composed, focused and play well on both ends of the court”.
Asked if the goal is merely a good performance, he replied: “It’s not a secret that we’ve been struggling and we are not going through a good period. We will be trying with the new players that we have brought in to improve our game. It’s not easy to do something like that during the season. Of course, we are going to play the game having the win in our minds, not just to play. However, at the same time, our goal is to show quality, be focused at every position, and take the best we can from every match up. This game is no exception. We will try to supersede our current status and hide our weaknesses”.
On whether Rochestie and Reed are going to be debuting at the game against Maccabi, he said: “We’ll see. It’s tough, since we are not going to be having a lot of time to prepare this game. I’ll have to see what shape they are in. We’ll see… I don’t want to throw them in the ‘fire’ without them being ready. We’ll take it step by step. Now, all of our attention is focused on the game against CSKA. We’re thinking a little further ahead of this game, but we’ll see what we do when we return. We are going to have one practice and decide”.
Finally, asked on whether the team is going to be signing more players, he replied: “We’ll see. We have our eyes open and see how it goes”.
On his part, Sasha Vezenkov pointed out: “We were lacking toughness in the previous game, and the fact that they grabbed 20 offensive rebounds was a huge problem. However, that game is history now. We have to face one of the best teams in Europe that has been playing extremely well, especially at home. They have many quality players. We need to follow our coach’s instructions and endure down the stretch. We need to remain competitive for all forty minutes and try and get the best we can. CSKA has been playing very well at home and they have talented players. We have to control the tempo, the rebounds that really cost us in Vitoria and play our own game when attacking. We need to play liberated. I hope we show a better face and play better”.
In the game against Baskonia, rebounds had been the weak spot for Olympiacos. “In many cases, rebounding depends on who wants it more”, the Olympiacos’ forward said. “We lacked toughness and athleticism. CSKA has very athletic players that fight in every play. So we need to control defensive rebounding and go after offensive ones. Especially offensive rebounds are a matter of will. We need to control the rebounds, the tempo and try to contain our opponent as much as possible”.
On whether Olympiacos is at disadvantage only playing Euroleague games, he commented: "We had known that before the season started. Wins and losses simply last longer. It’s good that we have a two game week ahead of us. It’s important to us. We are coming out of two bad results and need to recover. We definitely need to be playing better ".