Bartzokas: «Fenerbahce is in good shape»
Olympiacos is hosting Fenerbahce at the SEF for the 14th round of the EuroLeague and Giorgos Bartzokas got to talk during the Media Day in view of the critical game.
In his initial statements, the Olympiacos' coach stressed: "We expect a difficult game, Fener is coming from 5 consecutive wins, 4 of them in their home court. They have shown to be in good shape, their injured players are returning. Their outlook is somewhat different to what it had been the previous season. This year, they play the iso more. They are a team that shoots the ball well and they are very good in the transition. It's a difficult game for us, we are coming from losing in Belgrade. We had been controlling the game up until 25' and then we had a very bad stretch with poor choices and turnovers that led us to receving a lot of points in the transition. We did not control what we could. Tomorrow, we have to be more focused on that part so that it doesn't happen again".
Then, Giorgos Bartzokas replied a question regarding the time his team had to rest due to the break for the National team games, commenting: "It's important, but that was the case for all the teams in the competition. You don't have an extra advantage from that. At the same time, we have also had some issues, Fournier ran a fever and he's extremely doubtful for tomorrow. He will not practice. McKissic is out. Ntilikina is coming back in. We have players and the roster we need to compete and win the game".
Asked about what was that he pinpointed for his team during the previous days, the coach said: "We hadn't been all together, because the Greek internationals were gone. We tried to practice on our principals a little more, all the players focused on their routines. The internationals were back on Monday and we were all together on Tuesday. Today, we will not have Fournier with us. We try to get better every day both on individual standings and on how we all connect with one another on both ends of the floor".
Finally, Giorgos Bartzokas answered a question on whether he's tired from all the speculation regarding possible signings and how the team is impacted by it: "I'm very tired, indeed. I can't always be asked about this one thing. We have a team with so many playhers and the constant discussion topic in Greek society and not just in basketball circles is which guard is Olympiacos signing. I think we have a group of people dealing with this matter and we also have so many critical games ahead of us. Greek League, EuroLeague games. It's really tiring. Everyone is impacted because everyone gets to read about it. In any broadcast, podcast or anything like that on a major media outlet, the number one issue is Olympiacos' new guard. It's obviously annoying. But we can't force people to stop talking about it".
On his part, Donta Hall stressed regarding the break and the game vs Fenerbahce: "We didn't actually have one week, we had two days. But the truth is, that in these two days we recharged, we feel better, I feel fresher and I obviously think that we are going to have a better mindset in tomorrow's game.
First of all, we must look at us. We must protect the ball, get the rebounds, make better decisions and play Olympiacos' style of basketball".
On whether Olympiacos' basketball fits his own style: "Yes, at most part, it definitely fits with pick n'roll plays. Of course, it also depends on the opponent. However, in general, my style fits that of Olympiacos', especially when we play at high tempo and that's very good for me".