Bartzokas: «We aim for a good performance and a win»
Tomorrow, (October 6, 20.15 CET), Olympiacos will be visiting the OAKA to face off with Panathinaikos, aiming to begin the new Euroleague season with a win.
“It’s going to be 100% a different game, because games between these two teams are never the same”, Giorgos Bartzokas said in his opening statement, and went on to add: “First of all, the venue is different. Rhodes had been a neutral arena for us, the OAKA is a tough court to play, especially for us, related to the atmosphere. Nevertheless, we begin the season with optimism, we have faith in our team, we are happy the season is starting, although we would have liked to have some more time to prepare. We hope for a good performance and that we start with a win”.
The ‘red & whites’ are going to play the premiere with one important absence and a … question mark. “Fall will not be playing, because we chose to have him practice lightly this week and have him play the next one”, our team’s coach said. “Brazdeikis has only practiced twice with our whole team and is getting better every day, but his coming from a three week inactive period. We are going to examine after tomorrow’s practice whether he’s going to be on the final roster or not”.
Asked about the keys to the win, Giorgos Bartzokas said: “We’ll have to impose our game style. Good defense, that is going to allow us first or second chance fast breaks, being consistent with rebounding. These things had been important for us in the previous game that we played with Panathinaikos, and they also gave us the big margin from the start. We expect Panathinaikos to be more aggressive, less hesitant, more determined, because they are going to want to respond to what has been written, said and all that has happened in the game in Rhodes. And because they have both a good roster and a good coach, I believe that in overall they are going to be more ready to face us”.
Finally, when asked to talk about Giannis Ioannidis, who died yesterday, leaving the ‘red & whites’ family in mourning, he said: “The Presidents, our captain and I attended the service in order to honor the man who had a huge contribution into changing the contemporary history of Olympiacos. Olympiacos’ rebirthing was originally planned in his head and of course that of the president, the players and all those who were members of that team. But he was the one to visualize what has transpired. His footprint is a huge one and not just for Olympiacos, but for Greek basketball as a whole and Greek sports in general. We extend our sincerest condolences to his wife and daughter”.