Bartzokas: “There are no excuses”
Giorgos Bartzokas addressed the media at the press conference following Olympiacos' defeat to Crvena Zvezda.
In his opening remarks about the team's loss, the Olympiacos head coach said: “First of all, I would like to congratulate Crvena Zvezda on their victory. Once again, I also want to say how grateful I am to our fans for their support. As far as I'm concerned, there are no excuses. We did not deserve to win based on the way we played. Although we had the opportunity to fight our way back, erase the large halftime deficit and bring the game down to a single possession, anyone looking at the statistics can easily understand that it is difficult to win a game with those shooting percentages. We shot 13% from the 3-point range, attempting 36 shots... Most of them looked good and were created after an extra pass, yet we still shot just 13%. At the same time, we missed 7 free throws and shot below 50% from the two-point range. That made winning the game extremely difficult. We tried hard defensively, but only in the second half, and that is why we had a chance to compete for the victory. However, it was not enough.”
Asked whether Olympiacos' failure to commit fouls in the first half contributed to Crvena Zvezda's 18-point advantage, Bartzokas replied: “100%. That is why there was such a big 18-point difference. We committed our 5th foul of the first half right at the end of it. We committed just one foul in the entire first quarter. When you play at home, you have to establish physicality, make contact and play good defense. Otherwise, the opposition starts feeling comfortable on the court and begins shooting well. Crvena Zvezda is also in good form. But it wasn't just about the fouls. On many occasions, we tried to play 'hero' basketball. We played against ourselves. If you look at our shooting percentages, including those of certain players, you will see that everyone needed to be better today, myself included. You cannot approach a game where winning would put you top of the standings with that kind of attitude. We were completely off track in terms of how we needed to defend, attack and manage our nervousness. You could argue that two players who had not been part of the rotation in previous games came into the lineup, but there were also players who had been in rhythm and still underperformed. Overall, it was a poor performance from us. I hope and believe that, at the level we are playing, this will serve as a lesson in how we need to approach our next game and continue our EuroLeague journey, which is far from easy for all the reasons you know.”
Asked whether the team's poor offensive production would influence the type of player Olympiacos might look to sign, Bartzokas responded: “In the second half, when we played with more emotion, our reactions were not consistent. We failed to control ourselves and made poor decisions. In the first half, we created plenty of open shots for good shooters, but they missed them completely unchallenged. Overall, we were careless, rushed and sloppy in the way we tried to win the game. We tried to win it through passion and by reputation, but that doesn't work in the EuroLeague. You have to play as a team in every single game. The worst thing I could do is allow public opinion to influence my decisions about which player Olympiacos should sign based on one game. For example, if we play poorly offensively today, does that mean we need to sign a scorer? Or if we conceded 100 points in previous games, should we then sign defensive specialists? Every game is a different situation, depending on the opponent and on everyone's mental and physical readiness. Jumping to conclusions is completely wrong. It's like having a football team, conceding a goal to a particular player and then deciding you should sign him without knowing whether he actually fits your team. I believe that, first and foremost, we need to remain calm. This is the EuroLeague, with all its ups and downs, something we experience every season. We also suffered defeats last year, as you rightly pointed out. We should also not overlook the fact that Zvezda has the advantage of playing at home, whereas we effectively do not have a permanent home court this season. Even in this situation, playing here, Zvezda has had more training sessions at this arena than we have. They trained here last night and again today, while we only had our morning practice. That is simply the reality. Realistically speaking, Zvezda is building their own home-court advantage, whereas we are essentially nomads this season, without a permanent arena. That is the situation, and we have to accept it while continuing to deal with this challenge. We must remain calm, exhaust every opportunity to improve our game, try to finish as high as possible and assess everything at the end of the season.”