By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The outcome in the 12th Round Euroleague match between Zalgiris Kaunas and Olympiacos had already been decided in the last seconds, but Kostas Papanikolaou (one of the Reds’ top players in the match with 16 points, 5 rebounds) continued attacking the basket, even though his team was up by more than 10 points.
When asked about the Greek forward’s decision Sarunas Jasikevicius answered, “It means that Olympiacos seems to be afraid of us. They now have a 8-4 record and we have 4 – 8. They are so afraid that they think that we will have the same number of wins by the game in Piraeus and during the fourth quarter we will have a 12 or 14-point lead. Thus, every point will count. So I think that they showed a lot of respect for us.”
The head coach of Zalgiris wasn’t happy with his team’s defensive behavior throughout the whole match. “Like I said before the game, we would have to take them down from 70 points to win, and that didn’t happen. I think defensively we are not playing good basketball lately, but we are also playing against opponents who have very good players. So sometimes it’s difficult, and we’ll continue trying to improve on defense.”
CHECK: More post-game quotes from Zalgiris Kaunas – Olympiacos.