Basketball
Bartzokas on match night: ‘They say it’s nice to be at Olympiakos but it has demands and stress’
George Bartzokas spoke to Game Night about the Greek Cup final and conquest, as well as the glory of the Cup.
Olympiakos won the Greek Cup after eleven years. George Bartzokas’ team defeated Panathinaikos OPAP (81-73) in the final of the Final Four in “Dyo Aorakia”.
The coach of the red and white, George Bartzokas, spoke to Game Night about the final of the cup, about the regular procedure, but also about the shine that such a trophy has achieved.
Bartzokas’ statements in detail:
For Dorsey: “Because he could have been fresh in the last 20 minutes. The fives are and how they fit together. I wanted to open up the squad, it came out after we won. It’s the momentum of the game. It’s also a matter of instinct .”
Who is the MVP: “I won’t choose, my position is always difficult, I have to support all the players. The five that finished the game played a disastrous defense. Panathinaikos scored consistently, made difficult shots, had less pressure than us. We needed a defensive five because Panathinaikos also scored in the first ten minutes. And we changed tactics on defense. The decisions of the moment often play a role, Vezenkov’s tip, Dorsey’s three-pointer play a role, all of that is crucial. We couldn’t have scored Panathinaikos if it had scored more.”
When this team is no longer under pressure: “There’s always pressure from the favourites, especially in a single game. It’s definitely the approach to a single game, for that and in the cup there are surprises. I’m not saying it would be a surprise if Panathinaikos won.” “Panathinaikos is a quality team. Basically what happened in the first half, they shot hard and put us under pressure, we stayed calm. I told them that Panathinaikos can’t shoot with such quality to be close to the goal to stay and we with ours.” Quality and our tactics to get lucky in the game”.
Change tactics in defense: “We changed different defenses depending on what the opponent did. All of Nedovic’s shots were marked, Nedovic played good defense in Wokap. Nedovic is crucial to Panathinaikos’ victories. I feel like he’s under pressure advised, they had to scoop.”
For the tournament when the trophy shines: Although I’ve read to fail that it wasn’t a crowded stadium, I have a feeling that if the slogan on the t-shirt read “It’s not a war, it’s a celebration”, it was. The referees were very good and the team benches to be a high level of those participating. If this is the case, the trophy automatically gets a different shine. Back in the day when the two teams were fatal in the Euroleague’s Fina Four, the trophy didn’t matter that much – just play by the rules and stay true to them.”
Returning from absence and when there is relief: “They say it’s nice to be at Olympiakos but it has demands and stress, today it was a relief. In Greece we know that games like this are more important than anything else here in Greece. Yes, they are life and death, but there is continuity with existing losses.΄
I am a sports writer and journalist who has written for various online publications including Sportish. I’m originally from the UK but currently live in Toronto, Canada. I’m also an author on Sportish and have written several articles on a variety of sports-related topics.
Head coach of “Kharkov Falcons” Valery Plekhanov He summarized the team’s 2025 results and talked about the preparations for the continuation of the season:
“Summing up the results of the calendar year, I want to congratulate all our fans on the upcoming New Year and Merry Christmas, wish our favorite team peace and good victories! “Kharkov Falcons” are the first players of this Super League season, so second place at the moment is a good result.
There are a few points we would like to emphasize separately. First of all, seven players from last season’s active squad won the Premier League together, but five of them never played in the Super League. Therefore, the experience they gained in the first half of this season is almost priceless. Secondly, Kharkiv Falcons are one of the two champion teams that did not play a single match at home. It’s very difficult when you’re not playing for your fans, you’re training in one gym, and you’re playing in a different gym every time, even on home tours. In these conditions, 4 defeats in 13 matches is a good result.
One of the most negative moments of this year was not being able to participate in the last four of the Ukrainian Cup. Unfortunately, we were a little unlucky in the draw. After an emotionally difficult and physically exhausting match with Krivbass, we did not have enough strength for the next match against Kiev-Basket in the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, our performances in the cup are over, but now we will be able to focus all our efforts on the championship.
Our main problem now is injuries. We have five injured players, three of whom have serious injuries that require a long recovery period. We’re about to get off to a very tough start to the new calendar season because the Falcons will be playing basketball six weekends in a row, which means six road trips with no rest time. If we could count on all twelve players in the squad at the beginning of the season, there will no longer be such a rotation. Therefore, all the responsibility and burden will fall on the players in the rankings. I hope they get over their injuries in the new year, recover from their injuries as soon as possible, return to work and help their beloved club properly represent Kharkiv in the Super League.
Despite the holidays, we have training scheduled almost seven days a week. “I really hope that by January 10 we will be a combat-ready team that can solve serious problems.”
Source: Sport UA
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
On December 23, as part of the 1/8 final of the Romanian Cup, the Ukrainian derby was played between Bucharest and Dinamo. Vyacheslav Bobrova and “Fast” Alexandra Lipovoy.
Dinamo won the match 89:79, and the fate of the ticket to the next round was decided in overtime, as Rapid won the first match – 83:73.
The home players acted more accurately in extra time and won with a total score of 101:85 and advanced to the quarter-finals.
Vyacheslav Bobrov made a double-double in 33 minutes on the field, scoring 10 points (4/7 two-pointers, 0/1 three-pointers, 2/2 free throws), collecting 10 rebounds, 1 block, 5 turnovers and 2 fouls.
Alexander Lipovoy played 38 minutes, scored 16 points (1/2 two-pointers, 4/7 three-pointers, 2/2 free throws), collected 3 rebounds, made 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 4 fouls.
Romanian Cup. 1/8 final. 2nd match, 23 December
Dinamo Bucharest – Rapid Bucharest – 101:85 Overtime (17:22, 28:12, 24:19, 20:26, 12:6)
Match record:
Source: Sport UA
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
Basketball
Mikhailyuk repeated his personal best from the NBA regular season in the match against Memphis
Ukrainian basketball player who plays for Utah Jazz Svyatoslav Mikhayyuk He repeated his personal best in starts in the NBA regular season.
This happened 128:137 in the game between the Utah Jazz and the Memphis Grizzlies on the night of December 23-24.
In this match, Mikhailyuk stayed on the field for 22 minutes and during this time he recorded 9 points (4/4 free throws, 1/4 two-point, 1/5 three-pointers), 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 1 turnover and 1 foul.
This match was Mikhailyuk’s 27th match as a starter this season. So, at the end of December, Svyatoslav repeated his career record in terms of starts, missing only one game against Dallas.
Previously, Mikhailiuk managed to play as a starter in many matches only in the 2019/20 season as part of the Detroit Pistons.
The Jazz are in 12th place in the NBA Western Conference rankings with 10 wins in 29 games. Utah will play its next game against Detroit on Saturday, December 27 at 04:30 Kyiv time.
Source: Sport UA
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
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