Kostas Sloukas can't forget about how Olympiacos lost to ASVEL / News - Basketnews.com

Kostas Sloukas admitted that Olympiacos wasted a huge opportunity against ASVEL last Friday, and stressed that his team "won't have a problem" if they focus on defense against Red Star.

Credit: Olympiacos BC Credit Olympiacos BC

Against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, Olympiacos Piraeus had a big lead midway through the third quarter, but the French champs turned the situation around and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat thanks to a last-second 3-point shot by Amine Noua.

Almost a week on, Kostas Sloukas admitted that he can't let go of what happened at the Astroballe last Friday night.

"Personally, I cannot forget it," the Greek point guard said when asked about the defeat in France.

"It's a victory that we theoretically had in our pocket, but 15 minutes of idleness deprived us of the win, despite our good game for 25 minutes," he continued.

"It's something we need to fix. We've been saying it since the beginning of the year. Of course, in general there is a tendency for you guys (editor's note: he meant the media) to make it a little more tough on us, because -as you know - we will lose sometimes. But that's the way we lose, and we have to fix it and improve for what lies ahead," Sloukas went on to say.

Olympiacos' next opponent, Crvena Zvezda, is in a good momentum, despite their home loss to EA7 Emporio Armani Milan that snapped their six-game winning streak under coach Dusko Ivanovic.

"It's a very difficult game because our opponent is in a very good momentum," Sloukas thinks.

"They play amazing defense, they play smart, and that's why they built their winning streak. I think if we are focused on defense, we won't have a problem. And I'm not saying this because I underestimate Red Star, but because we're also in a very good shape and we have to take advantage of it," the 32-year-old guard clarified.

Sloukas was asked the same question as his coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, on whether they've started thinking about the upcoming Greek derby vs. Panathinaikos on December 30.

"We are all focused on tomorrow's game," the player replied.

"Matches against Panathinaikos always have great peculiarities. These games belong to a special category. So, we first have to win tomorrow's game, and we'll talk later about that other game," Sloukas pointed out.

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