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Bartzokas: «We must protect the ball»

Olympiacos departed for Kazan on Thursday (02/12), where tomorrow (03/12, 17:00 CET), will be facing Unics for the 13th round of the Euroleague.

When Giorgos Bartzokas was asked about the tiring trip, as well as which should the focus areas be so that his players come back from Russian with a win, he replied: “We need to be ready. I don’t want to talk about the trip, because it’s the same for all teams. What we need to be doing is to focus on our opponent’s dynamics. Unics is a very good team in offense. They are a team with particular characteristics. Apart from being in a very good shape, they have big players that defend very well and a perimeter that scores and attacks really well. It’s obvious we need to protect the ball, given that they are the top Euroleague team in steals. We should not give them room to play the fast-break in order to have a chance at winning”.   

On whether concentration and tempo are going to be the ‘keys’ to winning, he commented: “These are always important factors in basketball. We shall have to stick to our plan. If you give them possessions and they run the transition, then it’s hard to follow the game. We need to be patient, to protect the ball and make good offensive choices, so as to not give the opportunity to open up the game”.

About the continuous upward trajectory for Unics and whether this is also due to the patience everyone on the team has shown, he pointed out: “This is true for all teams. Our opponent has a good coach, a very good roster, they have talented players and have made a couple of good additions. So, they are a team with lots of talent. They have quite a few Americans and their ranking is not random”.  

Finally, when asked to comment on the Russian team’s American forward, John Brown, he said: “He has a terrific way of putting his hands on the ball. He plays defense with great intensity. He’s practically a player that defends five positions. His game is complete unorthodox since he uses his body, his hands… But he’s a very good player and a very useful one”.