Walkup: «The game against Efes is a demanding one»
A few hours after their victory over Maccabi at the Peace and Friendship Stadium (SEF), Olympiacos travelled to Istanbul to face Anadolu Efes as part of the 24th round of the EuroLeague. Giorgos Bartzokas and Thomas Walkup spoke from the Athens International Airport about the upcoming matchup.
In his opening remarks regarding tomorrow’s game (22/1, 18:30 CET), our team’s head coach said: “We don’t expect anything other than a tough game. They are a talented team with a good coach, one that hasn’t been doing well in the EuroLeague, but they always play for their pride. I expect that at some point they will react, and I hope that doesn’t happen tomorrow against us.”
Giorgos Bartzokas then answered a question about Saben Lee, saying: “We all have very good feelings about Saben. He’s a wonderful kid and a good player. We simply wanted more of a point guard, because as you know we are very loaded at the ‘2’ position. It wasn’t about his quality, but about chemistry within this particular roster. Over there he’s playing very well, scoring a lot, and I hope they start winning too. Whether he has extra motivation, I think that’s human; every player wants to play well against their former team, and that’s how he’ll play. He’ll play with the highest possible motivation.”
Regarding Olympiacos’ absences in view of the trip to Istanbul, Coach Bartzokas noted: “We are traveling without Milutinov and without Ntilikina, because he played yesterday with some discomfort and doesn’t feel ready to play tomorrow’s game. So, we have several absences, mainly with point-guards, since Morris is also out, and that’s a bit of an issue. We’ll have to deal with it using some different tricks. Milutinov took a hard hit and there is a protocol that prohibits him from traveling. Unfortunately, he won’t be with us, but fortunately we have Tyrique Jones and Donta Hall. We have solutions for that position and I don’t think we’ll have any problem.”
He then answered a question about whether, after a positive run, he focuses on the positives or the negatives in practice: “Both. And it depends on the mental management each coach applies depending on the period. You can’t focus only on the positives, nor only on the negatives. You have to take a realistic approach to what the team is doing at a given time, and that’s what we do. Yesterday, for a certain stretch, we played extremely well defensively, but, when we went up by 25 points, we started playing outside the game plan, carried away by our emotions. We wanted to score easily and avoid doing the hard things that basketball requires. That’s human, of course. There are so many games, and I often understand the players. There are so many matches that it’s impossible to ask for full concentration on the plan for 40 minutes.”
Thomas Walkup also talked about the upcoming game: “They’re a competitive team. They played well last night, and it will be a demanding game for both sides. The most important thing will be to bring physicality to our defence.”
Asked about what is required for Olympiacos to maintain its form and productivity, Walkup replied: “We’re playing well right now, and that comes from good ball movement. We move the ball well, play with pace, and then everything flows out of the sets. Everyone has confidence, everyone is shooting the ball, and if we continue doing that and build on it, we’ll keep getting better.”
The American guard then commented on Olympiacos’ first meeting with Saben Lee after his departure from the team: “He’s such a great kid! Obviously, he’s an excellent player, but his presence in the locker room was fantastic. He’s an amazing person and I’m really happy that we’ll see each other again.”
Thomas Walkup also commented on Tyrique Jones’ first games with the team, saying: “He plays very hard and has already made an impact from the moment he arrived. You can see the energy he brings on both offense and defence: lots of deflections, steals, and rebounding ability. He’s been fantastic so far.”