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Giorgos Bartzokas stated that for what happens in the Greek stadiums – such as what happened in the away match with PAOK – there must be laws and institutions, adding that this is the job of the sports leadership and the state.
Giorgos Bartzokas spoke to the media ahead of tomorrow’s (21/11) match between Olympiakos and Baskonia (21:15, Novasports Prime and LIVE from SPORT24) for the 11th matchday of the EuroLeague and mentioned both the game and what they took place during and after the PAOK match for Stoiximan GBL when the Dikefalos fans were cursing him.
Giorgos Bartzokas stated in detail, among other things:
For Baskonia’s profile: “We have to be serious. Baskonia is a team with a very good coach, they always play at a high tempo and score a lot.
They’re having some trouble transitioning this year to a somewhat different style of play, mostly defensively… However defensively they’re the 3rd team in possessions allowed, which means they’re a good team defensively.
We have to be very focused in our offensive plan, make quick decisions, move the ball as we usually do, go for the defensive rebound and thus control the pace of the game through this process“.
On what Olympiacos must do to win: “For us, coming off a five-game winning streak, the worst thing we can do is for anyone in our team and in the stands to believe that we will have an easy task.
Usually in these matches we always have a problem, as it was seen with Villeurbanne. Approach is very important in Euroleague games and we need to approach the importance of the game.
In this period of time when we have completed almost 1/3 of the games in the competition, we must continue to win games, play better, improve as a reference the form of the players but also our defensive and offensive execution.
If we do that, we have a serious chance of winning, but that is not a given from the beginning.”
For the attack of Olympiakos which is productive, but also the defense: “We have a style of play where we have a lot of final passes. We think that in this way, even if we don’t have many points in transition – because in the last ones we didn’t, nor did we have any excellent percentages, but nevertheless we scored more than 90 points -, because we have the offensive talent, when we release the ball we will have a great harvest.
Many times a game goes into multiple possessions and what you do on defense doesn’t necessarily show in the score. But we have elite defenders in the team and I think our defense will be good again this year, it has been good in many games.
Of course, let’s not ignore that the talent in the EuroLeague is abundant, overflowing in all teams. “Even if you’re consistent defensively, you can concede points to very talented players and talented teams, it’s a matter of fact.”.
For the approach to the match against PAOK which brought a comfortable victory despite the absences: “That has to do with if we had to rest Milutinov and the other two talls get more playing time, or if Fournier had to stay back for a tight end in the middle, or if Dorsey had to sit out.
We still have a roster that has a lot of depth and that really shows in these types of games, where some have to sit out, rest, or are injured. We feel like we’re more covered coaching and executing a style of play.
Larentzakis played very well with PAOK, Vildosa is consistently good, Goss helped us a lot, Walkup is what he always is. In the perimeter but also in the tall ones, we have a rotation which is very important”.
For Fournier who was absent from the match against PAOK: “Fournier trained yesterday as well, today he will train even harder and we believe he will be in the game tomorrow.”.
For the absence of Vezenkov: “It is an issue, but my previous position also concerns this, that this year we have, for example, at “4” Alec Peters, who we believe in a lot. Papanikolaou can move up a position and plays it very well as many times as he has played. Even Moses Wright in several training sessions does it successfully.
So we don’t think that compared to last year or other years, an absence will be so impactful, although last year and the year before, we played a lot of games without impactful players and managed to do just fine. Because we rely more on our team play and not so much on any individual player.
Vezhenkov scores a lot of points off assists from his teammates. Of course, he has the ability, but with PAOK he scored 20 points in the half and didn’t get into any personal phase, it was a team effort.”
About what happened after PAOK and his statements and whether he or other coaches or players should do something: “I think that for anything that happens in all fields, there must be laws and institutions first. Asking people who do not have an institutional role (s.s. to do something) – because the institutional role means that I legislate and decide – is wrong. Because you are also treated like a graphic artist sometimes.
The sports leadership, the state, must make decisions of this kind and there is no blame against PAOK for this, it happens everywhere, when we play away from home in Greek stadiums, not everywhere, but in several where we are traditionally rivals. And this happens in our football teams, it’s not a matter of coaches or players”.
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