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Bartzokas: «We should avoid falling into a trap»

The Olympiacos delegation flew with a chartered flight to Moscow, where tomorrow (29/12, 18.00 CET) will be facing Khimki for the 27th round of the Euroleague.

“Each game has a different approach”, the coach of Olympiacos, Giorgos Bartzokas, commented. “It’s a different approach for the game against Real that we lost at overtime, and another against Fener on the road. We need to stabilize the parameters in our game, become more consistent during the game, avoid huge ups and own in our performance and be competitive in every game. Khimki is a team with lots of talent, as we all know. Nevertheless, they are at the bottom of the ranking board. What we need to do is play a very serious game to win, which is going to be really important for us”.

He continued talking about the Russian team: “The thing is that they have talent in all positions and in the perimeter, where of course Shved is a dominant figure, as well as the four big guys who play the ‘4’ and ‘5’ positions, they are players with big careers, NBA experience, they are all very good players. What we see however, is that Khimki hasn’t gotten the results they were supposed to get based on the talent in their ranks. What does this mean? That it’s not only talent that’s important for a team. It matters how compact you are, how aggressive and competitive you are on the floor and if everyone on the team is on the same page in regard to the goals. So, what I’m looking for is this. Shved is making too many decision and offensive plays in the game and obviously we have a lot of work to do in that area. In general, we know that they go for high scoring, close to 100 points and sometimes this is a trap because you also start playing this way and you neglect your defense, which is really significant”.

2020 is a year that has put humanity to a test, however, the coach has a reason to remember it with a smile… “During this year I came back to Olympiacos, if you want to know my take. I’m very happy for that. It’s one of the worst years in history at all levels, however, I’m happy to be working and I’m happy there’s basketball because it’s important to all of us. The fact that we deal with hardships, good moments, sad moments, everything is within the context of sports. Olympiacos is going through a revamping phase, not of his roster, but rather of the way the team needs to be thinking and playing. It’s not an easy process and it doesn’t take one or two months. However, I’m very optimistic that we’re on the right track”.

«We are going to fight and win»

On his part, Giannoulis Larentzakis pointed out: “We want to close the year with a victory. We have prepared adequately. We know it’s a rather difficult game. Khimki is quite talented. But we have prepared. We are going there to give 100%, fight and win, so that the year closes on a positive note”.

Talking about the ‘keys’ of the game, he said: “We need to be quite tough with our defense, win all personal battles and control the tempo”.

Asked about what it is he would leave behind from the year that is almost over, he replied: “I would certainly leave behind all the bad moments, minor injuries… But all of that are of secondary importance, because what we have been going through due to the Pandemic, has impacted everyone’s lives. I hope 2021 will be better and we return to normalcy”.