Bartzokas: «We did it together»

The Olympiacos’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, congratulated everyone involved with the team, following the win over Villeurbanne that secured home court advantage for the Euroleague playoffs.

“We secured the home court and that’s a remarkable feat, especially with three games remaining for the regular season to be over. I want to give credit to the players, the staff, the administration, our fans, to everyone! We did it together!”, he said before adding: “We have three more games to play and we are not going to change our approach. We are now focusing on the game with Panathinaikos and we are going to be fighting for the best possible seeding, even the first one. Good luck to Villeurbanne in the French League”.

He then characterized the playoffs as ‘war’: “It’s a team achievement that everyone was thinking home court to be a given, but I consider nothing as such. We are united and it’s important to stay healthy going into the crucial games of the season. It’s important though, that in the most difficult Euroleague up to now, we have secured home court. I feel content, but I also feel we are still at the beginning. The playoffs are a war, nothing is easy, no matter who we get to play against. We want to remain at high playing standards to be ready for the playoffs”.

On whether Olympiacos is going to try and ‘choose’ an opponent, he made clear that: “100% no, we don’t want to be choosing an opponent. Whenever you do that, you pay a price, and that’s coming from experience. Anyway, no matter who the opponent is, it’s going to be hard”.

As for Canaan and whether he will be available to play the derby, he said: “There is effort being made for him to come tomorrow. If he does and practices, we’ll see. It’s important for him to have been by his wife’s side and we are happy they have had a healthy baby”.