Ataman: “The important thing is character and team effort – To have better percentages with Virtus”

THE Panathinaikos won hard with a score of 73-71 Zalgirishowever he must quickly… forget it after facing Friday (11/17) the Virtues for the 9th matchday.

THE Ergin Ataman initially spoke about the match with the Lithuanians, stressing that it is very important character that the team produced, while he emphasized that they will need much better percentages in shots and free kicks against the Italians.

In detail what he said:

On the victory over Zalgiris and whether it gives his team a boost: “Of course. We lost two matches at home in overtime. We lost the game against Maccabi, miraculously the match went to overtime. The game against Zalgiris was difficult. We played better. At +3 we made a mistake and conceded a three-pointer, but we used the last few possessions well. This is the Euroleague. As you can see, every team gives their best in every match. Finding ways to win is very important. In some matches you can play excellently, as we did in Berlin, in others you can face some problems, especially in defense. The important thing is the character, the team effort. That’s what we showed last night and we won.”

On whether or not he had called a foul before Brady Manek’s 3-pointer: “My decision was not to foul. We have a bad experience from the match against Maccabi, that we gave away the offensive rebound and the match went to overtime. The basic instruction was to make a change and then protect the three-pointer. But, there was a mistake on the pick ‘n pop between Grant and Lessor. They should have been traded, but Grant felt it wasn’t a pick. This can happen. Finally, Zalgiris found the three points. That’s basketball. Sometimes you get fouled, the opponent misses the 2nd shot and then gets the offensive rebound. Therefore, in a game where the score is not so high, I prefer to play defense. Manek only made two three-pointers yesterday, Schmitz was out. For these reasons we decided to defend ourselves. This is my strategy. If it happens to us in the next game, with such conditions, with the score at 65-70 points, I will again decide to take out the defense”.

For the match against Virtus Bologna and the course of the Italians: “Virtus is playing good basketball, especially with Sengelia under the basket. He is very efficient. Also, Belinelli is excellent at the start of the season. They are coming off a good game against Milan, combined with a surprise performance from Lundberg. They found a way to get six wins. Sometimes, of course, they had bad games, such as the home defeat by Zalgiris or the heavy defeat by Real Madrid. Tomorrow it will be important which team will be more focused and more aggressive. In addition, in attack sometimes we play great and other times, like yesterday, we don’t do so well. We missed nine shots in the first half. When we move the ball, get fouled and miss shots, it has a negative effect on the team. I hope that tomorrow we will have better percentages in shots and free shots”.