He talked about his away match against Paris, as part of the 25th Euroleague race, with the Greek technician referring to his team’s absences, but also the way the French play. On the departure of the Olympic mission to Paris, for the 25th Euroleague game (05/02/25, 21:30), Piraeus coach George Bartzokas stood in the way of playing the next opponent. CORVERSE The words of Bartzokas For the absences of Luca Vildosa and Thomas Walkap, against a team like Paris and how Olympiacos will manage them: “The truth is that if there was a game in which we had to have all the guards available is this, because we need to mark players who are very creative and executive. But it’s not just Paris. She’s also very strong in offensive rebound, she’s good at defensive transition, generally she’s a team that has structure in her game, I’d said it in round one. You are required to stay in the plan, not get carried away, not give second attacks that are an important part of their game and of course execute both defense and attack in the right way.” CORVERSE How the Parisians fight and how the team will manage to intercept him: “Everyone has played with Paris and they understand what her game is like. Of course it’s not invulnerable because there was a time when they also made 4-5 consecutive losses. As Euroleague is, there is no team that does not lose. Paris also has weak points, but of course I repeat that it is a team playing in a tempo that is difficult for others to follow if they do not have enough days of preparations. It is a very good group that will claim in my opinion even a seat advantage. I don’t think the game will be a driver at the SEF, because in the end when we were in the range of defeat we pushed too much, stole balls, scored 20-22 consecutive points. We’ve gone ahead if I’m not mistaken, but that’s where we lost two attacks with an aggressive rebound that became a mess and a very difficult three-pointer. So he was actually judged in possession of the game. But Paris plays in ignorance of danger, they are very united, she plays in intensity. They deserve congratulations to the coach, of course, and the whole team. It’s the pleasant surprise one would say. We are not entering the process of making calculations for the seat advantage. Not me, not the players, not the coaches. It’s so demanding the organization and the work we have. You know, we played Friday with Ephes, which was a crucial game for us. After Sunday we played in Patras on a trip. Now we have this, after Friday, after Monday. So we don’t think or choose a game. We’ll play as best we can all the games. Last time they said the same thing in Spain, but we won both games. Of course, absentees are important now, but we have focused on playing with Paris rather than Barcelona.” For his part, Kostas Papanikolaou stressed “We are playing with a team that is very special in its way of playing, as far as our absences are concerned, well or wrongly all teams have at times to deal with issues like this… we need to do a better job so that we can fill the gap between the two children. Vildosa and Walkap). A game special, against a very special way of playing that requires you to have a very large concentration. One of the key pieces we saw and compared in relation to the first game is rebounds. We need to check this area. In the first game we lost a lot of rebounds, a lot of aggressive… It is a “fight” to be given on the floor, to be focused, to take out our energy and to do our best”.
Bartzokas for Paris – Olympiacos: “We do not choose games or do calculations for home advantage”
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