The “clover” coach stated that, “Valencia is playing very well this year in the Euroleague. They have five away wins including some big wins against Olympiakos and Efes. We must be ready to fight from the start with great energy and focus. Our transition defense will also be important, one-on-one defense but also to lower their percentages, they have 82.5 ppg. We have to play good defense and of course in attack we have to do everything we need to be in the game and be ready to win. We have to be more consistent in this game.”
About them Matt Thomas and Dimitri Agravani but also his condition Mateus Ponitka pointed out that “as for the athletes, Matt has done 3 trainings with us, tomorrow he will do another one, and Agravanis yesterday trained for the first time with the team and we will see after today’s training. I believe he will help us with what we need to have a good fight and win. We’ll see about Ponitka, he didn’t practice 5-on-5, we have another practice today, and we’ll see how he is. The situation is this, he didn’t train, we’ll see today, but that’s the situation with Ponitka.”
In a question about them many players he has on the roster of Panathinaikos said, “first of all the goal is to do everything for the next game. This is our goal now. In the coming days we will think about this. We have some young athletes, some who are not counted, we will see these soon”.
About whether and to what extent it can help a classic shooter like Thomas and the situation he is in, he replied that, “Yes of course. I hope it will bring us what we need. But after only 2-3 training sessions and his first game tomorrow, we need time for him to fully adapt to the team. However, the first impression is very positive. It can’t be 100%, but we’re doing everything we can to get there as soon as possible.”
Finally, regarding what better he wants to see from his team, commented that, “The first half in Madrid was very bad. It also cost us a bad 7 minutes against Baskonia. I hope we can be more consistent on both sides of the floor. We have to be focused because they are playing very well. To be ready from the beginning to give everything, to have energy, concentration and to compete with greater responsibility”.
Follow News Bulletin 247 on Google News to be the first to learn the latest news .
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
