Ataman on Lorenzo Brown’s 3:39: “I wanted to pace Sluka – We didn’t show aggression”

THE Ergin Ataman at the press conference after his fight Panathinaikou AKTOR with Real Madrid for Matchday 4 of the EuroLeague was asked about the fact that Lorenzo Braun played just 3:39 when he was 50, with the Turkish coach replying that he wanted to pace Sluka.

In detail what he said:

“Real were in control in the first quarter, we were soft at the start, we gave them 28 points and lost our balance. We made an effort to come back, we improved our defense in the second quarter with the pucks, but we didn’t make it. Real played much better in the third quarter, they had a significant difference. We tried, but it’s not easy to come back in such an away match and win it. Overall we didn’t show aggression, we had one steal, we only had eight errors. We gave away a lot of offensive rebounds, that was the key to our loss.

Nothing happened to Lorenzo Brownhe started, he was in when we played really badly and found ourselves at -11. Next we returned to our last year’s rotation with the Grand-Sluka duo. I didn’t want to hold him any longer, I didn’t want to put him back in, I wanted to pace Sluka. Real did a great job with Ambalde, defensively and offensively. Push Nan, it’s hard to have both Sluka and Lorenzo Braun together, especially in defence. It was a choice, nothing more».