«We have players with pride»
Defense was the key for the win against Valencia, according to the coach of Olympiacos, Giorgos Bartzokas.
“Congratulations to my players for the victory, which I really appreciate. I think that Valencia is the team with the best execution in the Euroleague, and we, with our defensive game, destroyed their ball movement and their activity. Then we controlled the game for about 30-32 minutes, playing a compact game on both ends of the floor, offense and defense wise. We passed a lot, found the ‘open’ players and showed patience. The last 7-8 minutes of the game are a totally different story. Valencia, with no more pressure, and trailing about 30 points, made some long distance shots, nine threes in the last quarter and returned to the game. We succeeded in controlling it and getting the win. I would like to congratulate Valencia for their course with the Euroleague this season and wish them all the best in the following games”.
When asked to explain the way the ‘reds’ played, even though they had no ranking motive, he said: “We have players with pride and players with quality. We have a good roster. Unfortunately, we have lost Papanikolaou, an essential player for us and then we lost Hassan Martin, and these incidents really hurt us. On the other hand, we were controlling our fate and we should have won the 4 or 5 games we got to lose in the last possession, so we should not be complaining. However, I believe that each season can teach you something. For us, it is very important to understand how the Euroleague is now. There are no teams you can underestimate. It’s the league where the finals start in October. That’s why I said earlier on, that I appreciate the effort of my players. They have quality, pride and we have a good team. Sometimes we get to show that on the floor, some others we don’t. Tonight, for 32 minutes, we played a very solid game”.
The MVP of the game, Giorgos Printezis, stressed: “I don’t care about my performance since we haven’t succeeded in our goal, which had been making the playoffs. What’s fair for us and also our opponents, is that we play all the games to the end. We want to finish the season in the best possible way. We have to be playing at 100% of our potential, because we are Olympiacos”.