Jasikevicius has no doubts: 'Olympiacos are back' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Zuma Press – Scanpix Credit Zuma Press – Scanpix

FC Barcelona(2-0) will faceOlympiacos Piraeus(2-0) at Palau Blaugrana on Wednesday night in the third round of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague. Both teams are unbeaten this season so far.

FC Barcelona / Schedule

FC Bayern Munich FC Barcelona72-80 FC Barcelona Olympiakos PiraeusWed19:00 Monaco Basket FC BarcelonaFri17:00

Sarunas Jasikevicius began the preview of the game admitting the powerhouse Greek team is once again among the best teams in Europe.

“Olympiacos are back, without a shadow of a doubt,” the Lithuanian coach said before the upcoming game. “They kept good players from last year, and the new additions are quite experienced and talented.”

“Lot of players can defend the perimeter. Hassan Martin doeshis things on the paint, he destroyed us last year”, he continued.

“We need to prepare the game well, it’s going to be tough. In Munich, wehada pretty good game, and I think it could be similar somehow”, Jasikevicius concluded.

Nicolas Laprovittola, who is averaging 5.5 points and 4.5 assists in 14 minutes, agreed with Saras’ perspective about the game.

“We need to continue as in the first two Euroleague games. Olympiacos gained confidence after defeating Madrid. I’m sure they will fight until the end. It depends on us to be focused during the 40 minutes.”

From Olympiacos’ view, head coach Georgios Bartzokas recognized the difficulty of the game against his former team.

“It’s maybe one of the most difficult we have to play the whole season, given the dynamics of the opponent and the fact that we play on the road. We believe we are on the right path to improving our game, becoming better, and if possible, challenge for the win”, the Greek coach said.

Bartzokas also gave his perspective about what Olympiacos will need to do to win.

“We need to defend very well in the post because they play back to the basket. Setting the game is going to be really important, that is, whether we’ll be able to impose a speedy game and if we can play in the transition more than they can. In general, we have to be mentally and physically tough to cope with this game”, he analyzed.

Thomas Walkup, one of the newcomers at Piraeus who knows Jasikevicius well, warned about Barcelona’s intensity.

“They are a very disciplined team with a good coach. They are definitely going to have a good game plan, and they are going to play hard. We are going to have to play tough and remain focused”.

Barcelona will host Olympiacos on Wednesday at 9 pm CET.

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