Coach Bartzokas lambasted his team following a tepid display in Belgrade
Crvena Zvezda took advantage of Olympiacos's ‘softer than butter’ performance
Artikel
3 Lesezeit
Regular Season
Round 15 of 34
Group Regular Season
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The Olympiacos Piraeus players are likely to face some scathing criticism from their head coach Georgios Bartzokas after the Greek side went down tamely at Crvena Zvezda Meridiabet Belgrade, 87-73, having trailed all night in the cauldron of Belgrade Arena.
The visitors were given a red-carpet reception by Zvezda fans, with the two clubs nurturing brethren relations thanks to their identical red-and-white team colors, but the home team pulled it from under their feet in a lop-sided contest.
“It was our worst performance of the season. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and realize that we have to do whatever it takes to win games,” a grim-faced Bartzokas said during the post-game press conference. “We had 17 turnovers, we shot about 20% on three-pointers… defensively, we were softer than butter.
“It’s no excuse that [big men] Moustapha Fall and Moses Wright were out; if you’re a solid team, you go out and play as a team. Today we were really bad and tried to win the game individually, as we didn’t execute the game plan and got beaten on every play which involved contact. We deserved to lose.”
In stark contrast, the home team’s forward Nikola Kalinic was elated after Zvezda produced arguably its most mature performance of the season, having also missed the sidelined trio of Filip Petrusev, Milos Teodosic and Joel Bolomboy.
With Bolomboy and Teodosic sidelined by injuries, the in-form Petrusev sat this one out as he was ineligible to play due to a clause in his loan contract from Olympiacos, having been shipped back to his former club earlier this season.
“A huge victory for us, it’s good to be back on a winning streak,” Kalinic said to EuroLeague TV in a courtside interview. “Tonight we played very well throughout the 40 minutes and we are very happy with our focus, physicality and intensity. We were amazing tonight as everyone who stepped out gave us energy.”
Zvezda’s head coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos won a personal battle against his Greek compatriot Bartzokas, as the Serbian side took care of the ball superbly and hit clutch three-pointers to keep Olympiacos at bay.
Zvezda dished out more assists (25-18) and committed much fewer turnovers (8-17), while hitting 10 of 23 from downtown and restricting Olympiacos to 6 of 23 from beyond the three-point arc.
“We controlled the game throughout and played very good defense, especially in the second half,” said Sfairopoulos. “We found better solutions on offense in the second half and got the lead; we deserved to win and congratulations to the players. It’s a very important win for us and I also want to thank the fans for the incredible atmosphere they created this evening.”
In Round 16, Zvezda visits Anadolu Efes Istanbul while Olympiacos is at home to Virtus Segafredo Bologna, with both games scheduled for Wednesday. They will be in action again on Friday as part of the double-round week, with Olympiacos at home to ALBA Berlin while Zvezda hosts Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv.