By Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos lost to Zalgiris Kaunas at home in overtime and after the game coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos commented on the referees as well as the game:
“We lost the home-court advantage. It was a close game that both teams could have won in overtime. This is a series of games, and we need to fight on Friday. We have to win Game 2 and travel to Kaunas to finish off the series there. We had some players not being in a great condition after their injuries and that also hurt our game.”
When the regular season ended, coach Saras Jasikevicius said that the referees must play 50-50. Coach Sfairopoulos commented on it, saying the following: “My colleague, coach Saras Jasikevicius attacked the referees before Game 1 and I don’t believe that the referees called with equal criteria tonight. Zalgiris went to the free-throw line with some easy contacts and a lot of contacts that were not called in favor of Olympiacos. We respect the referees and the procedure in EuroLeague, but unfortunately, we see that tactically all of the other teams talk about refereeing. I had not talked so far, but we see that this is a disadvantage and like we are happy with what they are saying. At the end of the day it’s very important to have 50-50 calls, but tonight the calls were not 50-50.”
Olympiacos’ coach was also asked about the refs and if it is a sudden problem and he said the following: “There is a plan for the referees. Everybody growls, they send DVD’s, we had not talked about referees until tonight, and this also affected us in the game.”
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