Bartzokas: «We showed two faces in the game»
Giorgos Bartzokas commented the following at the press conference from the Basketball Development Center following Olympiacos’ game against Efes in Istanbul.
In his opening remarks about the game, our team’s head coach stated: “First of all, I would like to send my best wishes to Pablo and the entire Efes team. They are having a difficult season with many injuries, but that is part of basketball and part of life, and they must simply fight in every game. As far as we are concerned, we showed two different faces: one in the first half, where we scored almost 50 points, shared the ball, and found open shots. We played with confidence, and at the same time our defense was solid. We got to build a 17-point lead, and, for some reason, we thought we could win easily without maintaining the same approach. That is impossible in the EuroLeague. We started making mistakes, our defense was no longer solid at that point, and we committed many fouls in the first 3–4 minutes, immediately sending Efes to the free-throw line. That made it difficult for us to play tougher defense. But in the end, we managed to win despite missed layups, missed open threes, turnovers that led Efes into transition, and despite the fact that we scored half the points we did in the first half. Still, it is an away win against a club like this, and we need to be happy for a few hours and then focus on the next challenge ahead of us.”
He then answered a question regarding the tactical reasons behind Efes’ comeback into the game, saying: “We stopped playing a paced game. We slowed down very early. If you look at how we played in the first half, how we moved the ball, how we moved without the ball, how we set our screens and how we executed, after that we did the exact opposite, even though we told the players in the locker room that Efes had nothing to lose being down by 17, and that this quarter was very important for them mentally. Even now, with so many absences, Efes still has an excellent roster and very good players with personality and pride, and I think we underestimated the situation. Not the team, but the situation. We made one or two turnovers, had one or two poor defensive reactions, and thought that even with a 10-point lead we could still win. But that’s not how it works in the EuroLeague. We have to execute with more speed. I saw frustration in some players. They don’t need to show their frustration; they need to keep playing. If you want to achieve great things as a team, you must control your emotions and play like a robot.”