Bartzokas: «We should be tough and control the game»

Olympiacos flew today (11/11) for St. Petersburg, where tomorrow (12/11, 18.00 CET), will be facing Zenit aiming to win his first Road game for the season with the Euroleague.

“Each game is a different story”, the ‘reds’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas stressed. “It’s in a different time period. It’s a game that has a great level of difficulty due to the home court, the good team, talent, experience. We hope we are going to be ready to play the game the way we should, according to the plan we have strategized to win”.

Talking about the Russian team’s good shooting percentages, he said: “They shot very well against Efes on the road and against Zielona Gora, which of course presented a different difficulty level. However, the fact that the played that way against Efes is a testament to their level. We have to defend well, not allow them to get comfortable on the floor, their facilitators from having too many options when passing and keep the ball in our hands. In general, we have to be tough and control the game”.

When asked to comment on the improvement of Olympiacos’ competition outlook, he said: “All teams get better as time goes by. The more the season advances, all team get better execution on both ends of the court. Of course, it’s very important that when the team wins, we become more confident in what we do. Also, a very basic factor is how many players you get to lose to injury. We have had issues with Hassan Martin in the previous games, but he’s better now. We believe that if we remain healthy, both physically and mentally and also remain humble, we are going to do well. We have to be humble, because we have really done nothing yet. It’s still very early in the season. We always have to have the same approach, that the next game is the most important. So, let’s focus on the game against Zenit, let’s see what’s the best we can do and if we win, it’s going to be very significant!”