«We need to focus on us»
Olympiacos flew today (10/12) to Madrid, where on Thursday, (12/12, 21.00 CET) will be playing against Real Madrid, for the 13th day of the Euroleague.
Vassilis Spanoulis did not fly with the team. The captain felt some tightness in the right abductor during today's practice (10/12) and will undergo a physical.
"I will need a lot of time to tell everyone how good a team Real is", Kestutis Kemzura commented. "They play together and they are very good, especially at home. We mostly focus on ourselves. We shall have to control the tempo on both ends of the floor, because there are going to be a lot of fast breaks and transition game. Of course, we need to take down their offensive averages, by not allowing them easy scoring. They are a great team, with great players, that are going to score. However, just like I said before, we need to make it difficult for them. We need to control and contain Campazzo's facilitation. We have great scorers and executioners from the perimeter. We need to play good defense and stop Deck's post up game".
On whether the absence of V-Span will be changing his team's plans, he replied: "It changes some of our plans, but we have enough guards on the rotation. So, the one that follows will be summoned to cover for the void. The rest of the guards need to step up and do some extra work".
Finally, when asked if his players have overcome the defeat at the OAKA, he said: "I think yes, but we'll find that out on Thursday on the floor".
On his part, Taylor Rochestie, pointed out: "We need to understand who we are. We are Olympiacos and each time we come on the floor, we expect a good performance and we are going after every chance we have to win. We need to put more focus on ourselves and realize that with confidence, we can go a long way. We'll try to do that against Real".
About the absence of Vassilis Spanoulis, he commented: "It's a team sport. You either have the player you mostly rely on, or the one that usually does not get minutes, it's the same. It's a team sport and we all rely on everyone else. The other twelve players need to find a way from within to come on the floor as a team and cover the voids. We need to fight hard as a team".
As for the defeat at the OAKA, he made clear that for him and his team mates, this game is in the past… "We look at the season one day at a time. It wouldn't have mattered, even if we had won Panathinaikos by 20 points. We have a huge game ahead of us and we need to focus on that. We saw our mistakes on video, we tried to correct them through practice and we focus on what comes next. Next game is very important to us".