Bartzokas: "Defensive rebounds were the key to winning" (vid)

The Olympiacos’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, appeared to be satisfied by his team’s performance and the win over Zalgiris, while also talking about the absence of fans due to a punishment on the home court.

“I want to congratulate my players. It was a very important win at the beginning of the season. Under these circumstances and I mean without our fans, because that’s always a problem. Just like I had said before the game, Zalgiris is a fighters’ team and they play at the same tempo for forty minutes. They keep the same level of performance throughout the game, they shoot, they facilitate and they are very strong at offensive rebounding. After the first quarter and especially after the first half, we got to control defensive rebounds and for me, that was the key to winning. Good luck to Zalgiris. I’m certain they are going to make some big wins in the future”.

Zalgiris’ coach, Kazys Maksvytis, said about the game: “Congratulations to Olympiacos. Just like I had said before, I think they’re playing the best basketball in the Euroleague at the moment. A lot of players have continued with them, they have added quality and they have a good coaching staff. I’m happy my team fought to the end and made some come backs during the game. But this is not enough if you are to beat Olympiacos. Our opponent punished us. We had problems with our offense having to deal with Olympiacos’ tactic to for defending with switching. If you want to win in the Euroleague, 90 points are too many to receive and you need to be playing better defense”.

WATCH EVERYTHING THAT WAS SAID IN THE PRESS CONFERENCE IN THE FOLLOWING VIDEO...