Nikola Milutinov: "“We still have to stay humble and we still have to work hard"

After dominating inside the paint for Olympiacos against Panathinaikos, Nikola Milutinov wants to keep his cool ahead of a long road ahead.

Olympiacos center Nikola Milutinov explained how his team has improved over the past two weeks on its way to winning three consecutive games in the Euroleague, including an away win in the Athens derby against Panathinaikos last night.

“The loss [in the Greek league] [against Panathinaikos] was a factor in the previous games,” Milutinov told Eurohoops after the win over Pana. “Honestly, we played a bad game. It’s a shame to play a bad game in front of our fans. You can’t allow that, especially in a derby. After the game we gathered in the locker room to talk among ourselves. We told each other that we cannot allow this to happen again. I think from that moment we started to improve our game, started to play better and showed what we can do.”

Milutinov put up 12 points and eight rebounds against Panathinaikos, exactly the same numbers he put up in the home win against Barcelona last Thursday. For the second consecutive time, the Serbian also collected six offensive rebounds.

“It is still early, ” Milutinov added. “We need to stay humble and keep working hard. We still have a long way to go. We have to improve our game.”