Bartzokas: “All players are available to us and we just have to find our form”

Olympiacos prevailed against France, defeating Villerban 85-73. Giorgos Bartzokas spoke after the victorious game.

After expressing his admiration for the atmosphere created by the French fans, the Greek coach spoke about the game and stressed that his team just needs to get into shape. Of course, Mustafa Fal couldn’t be missed, who dominated the field with 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 8 blocks.

What Bartzokas said in detail:

For the Villeurbanne world: “Let me express my feelings about the great atmosphere in this new fantastic stadium. At a time when Villeurbanne is struggling in the Euroleague, they had this crowd that really supported the local team at all games. It’s a good example of how we should treat sports”.

For the game: “For us it was a game that we absolutely had to win. It’s the first round and we had a game like this. We had to deal with that pressure, play as a team and play the way we should to win a game like that. We were ahead.” We played good team basketball throughout the game, we passed a lot, we had 24 assists. We had players who helped us at different points in the game.

Of course I have to mention Fal who had 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 8 blocks. He helped us a lot to get the win. Of course, other players also contributed to controlling the game, even if we had some difficult moments. I can remember Parris Lee’s buzzer-beater that consisted of a three-pointer and a foul… Moments like that can change mentality and give confidence to a team trying to get back in the game. We are very happy about the victory. We still have an away game against Alba next week to finish the first round and we are optimistic.

Our team now has all the players available and we just need to find our form and play as a team the way we want. I wish Villerban coach Gianmarco Posseco good luck and of course all the best at Villerban.

For case: “Since joining our team two years ago, Mouss has obviously been one of the main reasons why Olympiacos won every national league title and reached two Final Fours. We made it to the finals last year and Moose made a huge contribution to that, not only with the way he plays every game, but also the way he thinks about basketball. He doesn’t play selfish. He plays for victory and his team. It’s hard to imagine someone making 9 interceptions, but for a player with a height of 6’2″ it was even harder to dish out that many assists. It is the whole package and it is very important. At the same time, he is humble and a very important part of our team.”