Bartzokas: «We played a very bad defensive game»
Giorgos Bartzokas determined that his team’s bad defensive operation caused them to loose to Alba Berlin.
“Congratulations to Alba. They played very well. They played with confidence and they were motivated to play well against us. We played a really, really bad defensive game, not only in the second half, which is obvious due to the 53 points we received, but also in the first half. We were derailed from our plan and missed completely what we should be doing against a team that practically has its big guys facilitating or receive the ball in good positioning to shoot it. Also, the guards have excellent movement away from the ball. We weren’t ready to play this game and that’s why we were ‘soft’ with our defense. Additionally, we were hasty in offense and got out of rhythm. It was something we had to control through patience and ball movement. We were ahead in the score in the first half, however, when we stopped playing as a team and tried to execute with one pass or sometimes with no passing at all, Alba punished us in the transition. Once again, congrats to Alba. I wish them good luck with their remaining games”.
Asked about the ‘reds’ record on the road and why it isn’t equally good with the one at home, he replied: “If we had a 11-1 road record, it would be as if we were the NBA champions, because the Euroleague is a very tough league! It’s hard no matter which court you play at. You saw tonight, that Alba, despite having very few chances of qualifying for the playoffs, played an excellent game. They have won five out of their last six games. We are happy with our record right now. It’s a big improvement compared to last season. However, we still have five games to qualify to the playoffs and that would be a huge achievement for us. Olympiacos had been out of the playoffs in recent years. So that’s what’s important, regardless of whether tonight’s had been a good or a bad performance, if we play at home or away. Tonight we played a bad game. Last week, we beat Bayern. A few weeks before we beat Baskonia… So, I cannot be categorizing games as home or away ones. They are simply different stories”.