Bartzokas: “We have to raise our heads, we have to analyze how we lost”

The outburst in the flash interview was the first reaction after Olympiakos’ away defeat against Virtus Bologna. At the press conference, however, the coach of the red and whites expressed himself in a softer tone. He explained how his side were beaten by those with the competition’s second-best record, referred to Alec Pieters and urged his players to push on ahead of another away game against Villeurbanne.

In detail what Giorgos Bartzokas said:

“Congratulations to Virtus. They fought until the last possession. We controlled the game, played well and made good decisions. However, everything changed in the last quarter, especially our psychology after one or two missed shots. We lost our confidence and missed a lot of open threes from great shooters. We shot less than 30% from three three-pointers and scored 27 points in the second half. From this situation Virtus gained confidence, got back into the game and in the end everything was against us. I have nothing else to say. Congratulations again to Virtus. We have to keep our heads up and concentrate on the next game.

Alec Peters plays very well. It’s difficult for me at the moment to analyze what happened after a lost game. We didn’t have Peters in the last game against Valencia because his wife gave birth during the game. Today his effort was very good, especially in the first half, but we lost him in the second half. Even Alec was 0/4 despite being single. But I don’t want to focus on a specific player. We play defensively and offensively as a team, so we needed something more. I do not know what that is. Is it spiritual? Is it physical? We have to analyze how we lost a game we controlled by 39:30“.