EuroLeague, coach Ataman: “We played a great game defensively, we are here to win”

After the victory in the first of the two EuroLeague semifinals against Fenerbahce, Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman commented on the game. These are the statements of the coach of the Greek team.

Coach Ataman’s comment: “We started the game with an excellent defense, but then we lost control a bit. In the second half we played excellent defense again. When you play good defense, you win this kind of game. We are here to win the trophy, not to beat Fenerbahce and play the final. We played a very good game tonight, congratulations to the boys”.

On how he prepared for the game: “I prepare these kind of games with my feelings. Sometimes I stretched the rotation by playing defensive players like Kostas Antetokounmpo, Kalaitzakis, who did a great job”.

On Sloukas’ performance: “Sloukas did not play a great offensive game, but other players like Jerian Grant did a good job. I had very good feelings about this game, I hope to have the same in the finals”.

A comment on the match: “In my opinion, we were in control of the match for most of the time and were able to implement our strategy largely on the court. We started the match flawlessly in both attack and defence, sharing the ball very well and scoring points. Then, however, we made a few mistakes and some empty passes. At this stage, Fenerbahçe closed the gap with three-point shots by Nigel Hayes-Davis and Sestina. Their three-point shots with pick and pop put us in trouble. At the beginning of the second half we increased the gap, but Fenerbahçe came back. Then we changed a few things in our strategy and Kalaitzakis did a fantastic job. We put him on the court to put pressure on Calathes and he did it very well. In this way, we changed our defence, because Fenerbahçe had started to take three-point shots through their players in position 4 and 5 with pick and pop. We defended every play by changing and, although we don’t do it often during the season, today we adapted quickly. We were very aggressive on rebounds. Although we didn’t get any extra points from Kendrick Nunn, we found the shots we wanted on the offensive end. At this point Calathes did a great job defending Nunn. By controlling the rebounds, we got a great win. The key to the win was conceding only seven points to the opponent in the last quarter”.

On convincing your offensive superstars to defend: “To convince your best offensive players to defend, you first have to convince the whole team. There is a great atmosphere in this team in the locker room, with players who know basketball very well. Before these crucial games I tell our players that the attack won’t always work, that’s why it’s important to defend well. Today our attack was not very good, but our defence was excellent. Sloukas is having a fantastic season on defence because he sees how hard everyone around him is working. All our players are doing a great job in defence. As I said, our young Kalaitzakis, just like in the series against Maccabi, contributed a lot to the victory. All our players are aware of the importance of defence.”

What he told his players before the match: “Before the game I told the players to consider this game as a regular season game that we have to win, not as a Final Four game. I told them that during the season we were the best defensive team in the EuroLeague and that we must reflect our aggressiveness in defence. In attack I simply told them to play like themselves. Today we were also lucky, because sometimes coaches do not get the desired results with their moves. Today every move we made paid off, so I give a score of 100 out of 100 to the performance of my assistants”.

On Lessort’s game: “Mathias showed last season at Partizan that he has good character. He was always a good player, but after his character was well understood, he became a completely different player. Mathias was our first acquisition this summer. With his aggressiveness, athleticism and defence, he gives us a great contribution. Sometimes he doesn’t play like a classic centre, but he fights every time he is on the court. European basketball is different from the NBA. Here you always need to fight. If he could improve his free throws a bit, I would be much happier. Today he missed five free throws, but I think he will make all of them in the final’.