Ataman: “We will be better in attack with Olympiakos – We will see Papapetrou’s situation”

THE PAOK he was competitive for one half, but an excellent third quarter was enough for him Panathinaikos in order to get the victory-qualification (77-64) in the final of the Super Cup with Olympic!

At the press conference of the match, Ergin Ataman he spoke about the appearance of his team, while he commented extensively on the upcoming final with the “red and whites”. At the same time, he did not give clear answers regarding the foreigner who will be cut for this particular game, while leaving his participation open Ioannis Papapetrouwho did not play in the semifinal due to knee problems.

His statements in detail:

For the match: “We got one lead in the first half, but we missed a lot of free throws and some layups. We like to play with a lot of possession and be aggressive. In the third period, Luka Vildosa ‘cleaned up’ the match with his shots. Kostas Antetokounmpo played perfect defense. We won the game and we will be ready for the final.”

For PAOK: “PAOK has a problem because its substitute players are not at the same level as the main players. They are an aggressive team. I am not yet in a position to speak about the Greek teams. From what I have seen so far, it seems to me that Peristeri and PAOK do not have big differences and that they will claim their presence in the top four”.

For mistakes: “We made mistakes in the pick n roll defense in the first half. We talked about it in the dressing room and in the second half our defense was amazing. In attack we still don’t have balance, we have to find the distances better”.

For Guy and Vildoza’s shots: “We took a time-out at the end of the first half, we had said to play iso with Grant and put Guy in the corner. Vildosa’s shot was a personal choice, we hadn’t discussed it.”

For absences: “We are missing two important players, Mitoglou and Papapetrou who played a big part in the victories against Bayern and Efes in the Pavlos Giankopoulos tournament. It’s a final anyway. Olympiacos plays organized basketball, has two big centers. I believe that tomorrow we will play better in attack. We have to see how we will deal with them defensively. Of course it’s a final, a single game, so we’ll give our maximum effort to win.”

For Balcherowski: “Balcherovski will be ready for tomorrow. We have seven foreigners, so we have to choose who will be left out. We will see the situation of Papapetros. Mitoglou will definitely not play. Kostas Antetokounmpo played extremely well today. However, Balcherovski will be ready.”