Pap: «Aggressive defense is going to be our guide»
Olympiacos will be playing against Panathinaikos tomorrow at the OAKA (23/12, 20.00 CET) for the 17th round of the Euroleague and according to Kostas Papanikolaou, aggressive defense is going to be key.
“It’s a derby between the ‘eternal rivals’. It’s definitely an important game for us and for the fans, but our responsibility is to remain focused on our jobs and try and bag one more win. We are focusing on that, we are working on that and we want to appear as ready as possible to compete for the victory”, the ‘reds’ forward pointed out.
Asked if he and his team mates have learned anything from the home loss to the ‘greens’ for the Greek League, he replied: “After every game, all the more after a loss, there a lot of teaching moments you can work on. The same obviously goes for that game against Panathinaikos. Our job is to get the elements we failed with and improve on them or adjust so as to prepare something different compared to what we are going to be faced with and the way Panathinaikos will be executing. We need to build our defense on that as well as our offense so that we bring something new on the floor”.
On what it is Olympiaocos must do in order to get the win in OAKA, he said: “Our guide, especially through our latest experiences here at the SEF, is going to be aggressive defense. We have to start the game strong, with energy, passion and win plays that are going to allow us run the fast break. Also, we have to contain our opponent’s assets. I think this is going to be the key. This became obvious in previous games, when we start decisively we have a way to bring the game to our standards. So, it’s going to be very important for us, to be able to control the rhythm in the opponent’s home and play our game”.