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Κemzura: "Not give them anything easy"

Olympiacos will be hosting Khimki tomorrow (18/12, 20.00 CET) at the SEF and wants to return to winning at any cost. 

 “Khimki is a team that can take the score very high”, Kestutis Kemzura stressed. “They may easily score 90-100 points. They play a lot of pick n’ rll, they have height and they have Zved, one of the best players in the League that can score and facilitate. We should be able to contain their pick n’ roll game and Zved. It’s not going to be easy, he’s going to score, but a lot will depend on how he gets to score and his percentages”.

On whether he prefers “eliminating” Zved offense wise, or all the other Khimki players, he said: “I don’t want to give them anything easy. It’s not just Zved on this team. However, he’s the key player. We shall have to do our job, because he’s still the key player, since all offensive plays go through him. So, we need to contain his game and not allow anything easy to the other ones”.

Rimandas Kurtinaitis is sitting in the opposing bench, how apart being a huge presence in the Lithuanian basketball and beyond, he’s also a former team mate of his! “He has proved how good he is as a coach also. He’s doing a very good job. We have been opponents as coaches in the past also, when he was coaching Khimki and I was at Krasnodar and Nizhniy.  It’s always difficult to coach against his teams. He’s been doing a very good job. It’s not going to be an easy game”. Asked about whether Kurtinaitis is such a free spirit as he had been as a player, he replied: “These were different times. However, he understands basketball and has adjusted his system to the roster available. He gives his players some open shots, but at the same time his ideas on how they should play and how they should attack are clear”.

«It’s imperative that we come back»

Giorgos Printezis commented on the upcoming game: “In general and compared to previous seasons, Khimki has a very strong team. They have athleticism and it’s obvious that after many years, the players have found the correct chemistry both among them and with the coach. They have made a quite good start. For us, the way things have evolved, it’s a game we need to win. We want it very much to maintain hope in view of the difficult games that follow”.  

About the high ability of the Russian team in scoring, he commented: “Their scoring comes through facilitation, offensive rebounds, fast breaks… So we need to mainly contain facilitation by Zved, who scores a lot. We need to control offensive rebounds, which their whole team goes after a lot and stop their fast break as much as possible”.  

Finally, on whether he and his team mates are ready to leave their defeats to Panathinaikos and Real Madrid behind them, he said: “It’s imperative that we come back. We have prepared very well. Our last game was not good at all, mainly defense wise, but also in terms of facilitation and execution. We were very bad against Real and tomorrow is a game when we need to react”.