Panathinaikos experienced his first defeat in the tournament of Union Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia. Panathinaikos was defeated 82-74 by Fenerbahce/Ulker. This time the team started out well and led the game by 6-0 and 21-16 (10’). Fenerbahce/Ulker found the way to the basket mostly through Savas and Smith, cut the difference and took the lead later on in the game, expanding it up to 12 points (75-63, 35’14’’ and 82-70, 38’30’’), celebrating the win at the end with the final 82-74.
Periods: 21-16, 39-41, 61-67, 74-82
Panathinaikos: Kecman 5, Perperoglou 10, Batiste 12, Hatzivrettas 6, Nicholas 7, Tsartsaris 7, Diamantidis 2, Pekovic 16, Sakota 3, Verginis, Jasikevicius 6
Fenerbahce/Ulker: Green 13, Turkcan 8, Basak 4, Giricek 12, Mrsic 6, Vidmar 7, Demirel 5, Savas 16, Smith 7, Preldzic 4
Obradovic: My players are tired
Zeljko Obradovic talked about tiredness and turnovers after the game. “All the players were tired and that’s why I decided to split the time they played, that’s why Spanoulis and Fotsis were left out, while Diamantidis and Jasikevicius played for just 10 minutes each. It was not a normal game. But then again 21 turnovers are just too many. It’s a problem that we have to solve. We must be more focused on what we do. We have a clear view of what we can do and what we didn’t do. I believe that we’ll be ready for our official games. We have the time to change some things we want to change”.
* Obradovic kept Spanoulis and Fotsis out of 12 in order to rest them.
