BARCELONA, 26 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The coach of Olympiacos, Georgios Bartzokas, commented after losing against Barça at the Palau Blaugrana (77-69) in the second game of the Euroleague ‘Playoffs’ that perhaps his players made the mistake of thinking that the mission was accomplished after winning the initial duel and, now, they will have to prepare for the “battle” of Piraeus.
“We have to raise the level in certain things. Maybe we thought that we had accomplished the mission of achieving an away victory and achieving the court factor but that is not the case. But each game is a different story,” he said at a press conference.
But first of all he wanted to congratulate Barça. “They deserved the victory and they played with enthusiasm. In the crucial moments, when we returned to the game and came back, we had to make better decisions. We allowed open shots by Parker and Abrines with our mistakes that made them lose the result,” he lamented.
“The technical fouls against us were of crucial importance in the end. Now we are 1-1 and we are going home for the next two games. It will be a real battle and we will have to be ready for it,” he said ahead of the two games of the next week in Piraeus.
For Bartzokas, the fact that Barça was “between a rock and a hard place” could have been good for the ‘culers’. “They are a great team, with great players and they had the support of the Palau. We should have started better, but we committed fouls in the first plays. In these games, contact and physicality are important because there is tension and it was not the best way to start “he acknowledged.
“We had a lot of open and easy shots in the first half, but we missed a lot with Canaan and Walkup, who don’t usually miss. Sometimes, you put your opponents under pressure by scoring those open shots. We have good shooters but we need a better success percentage if you want to win here at the Palau,” he added.
On the other hand, he commented that once he is fever-free he hopes to have Kostas Papanikolaou to close the series, after the former Blaugrana could not return to his home. “I think we will have Papanikolau available, he started doing some cardio this Friday and there were still workouts ahead, although he is weak after a fever,” he said.
2024-04-26 21:15:03
#thought #accomplished #mission
