After his road win in Madrid coach Giorgos Bartzokas was asked in the press conference about his statement last week: “It’s bullshit to say that Khimki is a favorite for the Final Four”.
“I have the same opinion as last week. We have eight newcomers, including all our frontline. They don’t have any Euroleague experience so they need to learn. It’s going to be a long way process. Khimki wasn’t in this competition last year so we need to grow up during the season to become a strong team. If we think that we need to achieve the Final Four we are out. We have to think in the next game”.
About the game, he said: “This is our first win on the road after the game against Olympiacos, where we didn’t play well. When we controlled the rhythm of the game with any turnover -we had 11 in the first half- we managed to win the game. Everybody has to compromise with the idea that winning and losing is part of the game with this Euroleague format. You can lose everywhere at this level”. Bartzokas concluded.
Home coach Pablo Laso wanted to congratulate Khimki and added that going behind on the scoreboard complicated the game. As he said, his main problem was offensive because they didn’t have patience.