Bartzokas: "We should avoid turnovers"

Olympiacos left tonight (25/02) for Tel Aviv, in view of the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv (27/02, 20.05 CET), with a fourteen player delegation.

Specifically, Nikola Milutinov was not included in it, however, Taylor Rochestie is returning to action, together with Brandon Paul and Augustine Rubit, who did not play the game against Villeurbanne, due to illness. Also, Shaquielle McKissic and Dwight Buycks are getting ready to making their debut wearing the 'red' jersey, while Alexandros Nikolaidis , Aleksej Pokusevski and Vassilis Christidis also got to travel to Israel.

"We all acknowledge the difficulty of the game", the Olympiacos coach Giorgos Bartzokas stressed. "Maccabi has a strong team. There are some good news for our side, under the notion that we are more now and can prepare the games much better. However, there's also the fact that we have many players who are not in good conditions either because they had been sick, or because they were injured and are now coming back, or because they hadn't been ready… For instance, Buycks had not been playing for a month as well as McKissic. Right now, there's an imbalance in the shape the players are in and we have to improve day by day".

Asked about which he thinks the key to the victory is going to be, he replied: "You cannot know what is going to be important beforehand. It's always good to have more possessions, which is making less turnovers, more steals, getting the rebounds… All of the things that require intensity in the game are important. Maccabi is a team that likes to run its home court, with a lot of enthusiasm from their fans, so to protect the ball and not make turnovers, but also make good choices even if they are off target is important. You should keep them from having the ball in their hands".

On whether the increase in the number of players he has available could probably disorient them, he commented: "What happened in previous games was due to special circumstances and I'm really very happy to have coped. Each coach is happy when they have all their players available. You can have your full roster and lose; you can be missing players and win. That's not what matters. A team should be able to prepare correctly, have healthy body and minds and go after each game.

"Concentration and defense"

Giorgos Printezis said about the upcoming game: "Problems are fewer, however, they have not eclipsed. Milutinov is not with us and we don't know yet if Rubit can play. However, it's a different game that we need to enter as focused as possible. They are a very tough team, with tradition and to win we have to be as focused as possible, probably for a whole forty minutes. We'll see… We hope".

Asked about what it is he and his team mates need to do to "mess" with the game plan of the former Olympiacos and current Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach, Giannis Sferopoulos, he replied: "We all know that he really like focusing on defense. He practically wants to be making the opponent's life miserable; he wants his team always at the fast break and scoring easy buckets. He wants to be finding energy mainly through defense. So, we need to be as ready and strong as possible in these areas. Get the rebounds, change the tempo, play good defense ourselves because they are a very talented team".

As for the power of the fans of the Israeli team, that has announced a sold out for the game days ago, he commented: "We all know that they have a tough home court, but I wish to hope that this is going to make us focus and motivate us, more than it will be helping the opponent's psychology".