Bartzokas: «Defensive co-operation is going to be key»
Immediately following the Barcelona triumph, the Olympiacos’ delegation boarded a chartered flight and flew to Belgrade, where tomorrow (December 10, 19.00 CET), will be playing against Crvena Zvezda for the 13th round of the Euroleague.
“Right now, the game against Barcelona seems a distant one”, the ‘reds’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas stated. “However, this is the reality with the Euroleague. You have back to back games and you have to be ready for the next day. We fortunately traveled last night and today had the chance to rest a little longer and prepare for tomorrow’s game. Crvena Zvezda had more time to prepare for our game since they did not have a double game like we did. Of course this is no excuse. We have to be ready for a very demanding game in a tough court, if we want to win”.
Asked about the keys to the game, he replied: “I have known their coach, Sasa Obradovic, for years and he’s very capable. He prepares his teams very well and directs them from the bench throughout the game and almost in every play. Crvena Zvezda is the team with the most scoring coming from facilitators, from players who play the pick n’ roll. They are not very much into passing, they don’t have a high number of assists. But they are a team with high scoring percentages, very good ball handlers and scorers in the perimeter. That means we have to play very good defense on the ball and this constitutes for very good defensive co-operations”.
On his part, the American guard, Shaquielle McKissic, pointed out: “We really enjoyed the win against Barcelona for only a few moments. Right afterwards, we got on the plane and came to Belgrade for the game against Crvena Zvezda. To get the victory in tomorrow’s game, we need to play really smart, tough, listen to our coach’s instructions, play good defense and trust one another. I think that if we succeed in stopping them, or even slowing down their guards, then we are going to be in a good place and able to challenge our chances for a second victory this week”.