Ataman: “Olympiacos deserved the victory – Wright is a hero – I don’t want a civil war in the playoffs”

THE Ergin Ataman he focused on the help that Olympiacos got from the bench and especially from Moses Wright, describing the victory against Panathinaikos. The Turkish coach, in fact, pointed out that his team did not get anything from the bench except for Kostas Slukas.

“It was a typical derby, not pretty to see the quality, but Olympiacos deserved to win because they played harder. We started the game well regularly but missed a lot of free kicks. Then the entrance of Wright changed the facts, he was the hero of Olympiakos because he had 9/9 two-pointers. Especially in the second half they got things from the bench, while we didn’t get anything apart from Sluka. On the day Walkup, Fal and Kanaan did not perform to their usual standard but we lost. But it is not easy to win in this stadium. We fought until the end, but Olympiacos deserved the victory and for that I congratulate themErgin Ataman initially reported.

Regarding the great interest in the derby and whether it “empties” the two teams mentally and physically, the Turkish coach replied: “As a coach, I like exciting games more, the most spectacular ones. This was not like that. Olympiacos found a way to win. I was saying that it will not be good to play against Olympiakos in the playoffs, because we have already played six matches and we have the championship. There are many teams that are in contention for the playoffs, such as Maccabi. If we exclude Real, the other teams are close. We have five more matches, I hope we win them all and not play Olympiakos».

Regarding Panathinaikos’ low percentages in two-pointers, he said:It’s a bit of a surprise to me, we set up the game to attack the basket while Fal was out, but it turned out the other way around. We made a lot of mistakes against Wright and Petrusev, we gave them a lot of easy points. Congratulations to Wright, it’s not easy to put up so many points against one of the best defenders in the EuroLeague, like Lessor».

Finally, regarding the depth of Olympiakos in the seniors and if it worries him, he said: “We missed Antetokounmpo, because he is our second center. I can’t say that Juancho didn’t give us some things, in some matches he had a contribution. But today, apart from Sluka, we didn’t get anything from the counter».