By Michalis Stefanou/ info@eurohoops.net
With Olympiacos finishing the regular season on top of the standings, the question about the notorious curse was evident.
“If I believed in the top spot curse, I would have tried to lose today, so this doesn’t apply to me”, answered coach Giorgos Bartokas in the press conference.
The Greek coach, after all, has already broken another longstanding “curse” of the EuroLeague postseason: “There was also a ‘curse’, that if you always play Game 5 on the road, you always lose. That was the season that both Fenerbahce and us won Game 5 on the road. So we have broken this curse, and we are here to break also the next curse if we can”.
And that’s why he cares mainly about his team and doesn’t have any preference about the playoffs opponents: “How can I pick an opponent? All the other teams are so strong, even from the play-in tournament. We have been defeated by many of those teams, or we have had some very hard games. Some of them may have a better rhythm because they will have already played one or two games, and they will hit the ground running, contrary to us, who will have only Greek league games under our belt, not of the same quality”.
Still, Bartzokas is more than confident that Olympiacos can go all the way, starting with making it to the Final Four: “Since I have heard many analysts who are doing podcasts and vidcasts, and they say that Olympiacos must avoid this or that, because it’s Saras, or because it’s Panathinaikos, I am thinking why they don’t also say that the rest have to avoid the top team in the standings? Because according to the results, we are the best. So we believe that we will be a hard opponent for anyone, and we have the home court advantage”.
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