Bartzokas: 'We play in an empty gym, while other teams have 12.000 fans' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Olympiacos BC Credit Olympiacos BC

Crvena Zvezda Belgrade forced Olympiacos Piraeus to their first home defeat in the EuroLeague season while racking up their first-ever win at the Peace and Friendship Stadium.

Player of the Game EFF 18 Ognjen Dobric Points 14 Accuracy 6-7 Rebounds 1 Assists 4

For the first time since the season started, Olympiacos are below the TOP 4 spots with a 12-8 record, which is the outcome of three straight losses to Fenerbahce, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Crvena Zvezda. The Reds, still winless in 2022, have recently been battling through adversity.

Against the Serbian squad, coach Giorgos Bartzokas couldn't count on team captain Giorgos Printezis and small forwards Kostas Papanikolaou and Shaquielle McKissic.

"Congratulations to Red Star. They had a solid game for 40 minutes, taking advantage of the fact that we've missed a lot of players to injury or COVID. That affected us in our preparation," Bartzokas said post-game.

It's been almost a month that any game in Greece takes place in the presence of up to 1.000 fans. The Greek government decided that all arenas throughout the country operate under a (very) limited capacity while the spread of COVID's Omicron mutation resulted in tens of thousands of cases every day.

For the first time this season, Olympiacos announced just a few hours before tip-off that 100 tickets for the game against Zvezda were still available for purchase. Also for the first time in a EuroLeague game for the Reds, seats were almost entirely occupied by season ticket holders.

Alas, the bad weather conditions in the Greek capital and the heaviest snowfall in recent years definitely weighed on Olympiacos's fans.

"We played in an empty gym," Bartzokas continued.

"It's not a complaint because I totally respect the government's decision, but the circumstances are not the same for everyone. We played Fenerbahce and Maccabi in a full gym and we came here to play in an empty gym. There are 12.000 fans everywhere we go.

Thomas Walkup

MIN:21.87PTS:5.8 (46.15%)REB:2.6As:3.05ST:0.9BL:0.05TO:1.15GM:20ProfileEuroLeague2021/2022

It's still early in the season and we've got another round to bounce back. We can do it through our work and team effort," the Greek tactician stressed, before referring to the toll COVID took on the team.

"The loss that really hurts is the one we had tonight. Until now, 11 of our players have gotten COVID, almost at the same time. The team's doctor and gymnasts told us that the team will be affected for a whole month. A player needs two weeks to get back to game shape.

It's something we can't control, no matter how sad it is for us. We'll stick together and fight for a goal, which is to make the TOP 8."

Last year, Olympiacos weren't able to respond to injuries and didn't make the playoffs.

"Injuries are no excuse," Bartzokas clarified.

"Last year, we played behind closed doors and now we're back to the same situation. Let's hope that the restrictive measures will soon be over so that we can play our rivals on equal terms.

As far as I know, only Bayern Munich are playing without fans in the stands."

"These are the ups and downs in a basketball season," guard Thomas Walkup commented.

"We really have to dig deeper, top to bottom, and focus even more on the game plan. We have to force it to turn it around. We lacked physicality, rebounds, loose balls."

Credit Olympiacos BC

Olympiacos forward Sasha Vezenkov explained to Greek network NOVASPORTS that he and his teammates "are not looking for excuses. We're not playing well and don't fool ourselves by the fact that we get easy wins in the Greek League. We're not playing as we did before the break."

The Bulgarian-Cypriot added that self-reflection is mostly needed now that things have gone bad.

"Everyone should make their self-assessment. This year didn't start well. Some weeks ago, everyone was talking about us getting the home-court advantage, the 2nd or the 3rd place. If we keep playing like that, I don't see it happening. We need to get together and focus on how to get better," he said.

Vezenkov, Olympiacos's best player against Red Star with 20 points and 8 rebounds, maintains that his team's poor form cannot be an excuse either, despite Bartzokas arguing that those who contracted COVID will need a couple of weeks more to fully recover."We were out of shape in the Fenerbahce game, but it's been two weeks now," he uttered.

"We're not the only team that's gone through COVID. We need to re-distribute the roles within the team. When defeats come, self-confidence is lost. We lost a lot of plays on defense and made a lot of mistakes, which allowed Red Star to run in transition. We gave everything we could, but it wasn't enough."In case anyone was wondering, the 27-year-old assures that "the atmosphere in the team is very good. We have to look into our mistakes. As we all went up together, now we must help each other," he concluded.

On the other end, Crvena Zvezda's coach Dejan Radonjic saw his players execute the game plan and capture their 8th win in the season and third on the road.

"It was a good game for us on both ends," the Serbian bench boss said.

"Defensively, we had some problems in the first half. It was important to make some good decisions in the last minutes of the game. It was a big win. We had many problems with COVID this month, but we played a really good game."

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