Mike Batiste and Drew Nicholas talked about the premier of Euroleague and the positive result against Zalgiris Kaunas; A game that took place in OAKA in front of 18000 fans. For Nicholas this was the first game with Panathinaikos in a full house.
“It’s really good to play like this. When we started play well, you could feel the energy in the building and all this help us. I believe this is part of the reason why Panathinaikos is always so successful at home. It was a great push for the whole team”. He talked about the game: “We started the game very well and sometimes when you are up so much you tend to relax and they came back to the game. But then in the third quarter we played very well and the game was finished”. His role in the team seemed different than what we are used to see in his game so far. And he enjoys it! “For sure my role has changed. In Efes Pilsen I was playing 30-35 minutes and also many times the ball was in my hands in order for me to create. Everything is OK for me here though. I knew that my game was going to change. It will take some time to adjust but I really like. In the past there was so much burden on me to play good in offence, that I had to pick my spots in defence, to save my energy. Now I know that I will play continuously 5 or 8 minutes and that I have to play as hard as I can in these minutes. But I feel more relaxed because of my teammates. I feel more complete as a player and I certainly enjoy it more: First of all because the team is successful. That’s the biggest thing in the world for me. As long as the team is successful, if I don’t play so well individually I would still be happy, because this is a team game. And I know that my teammates are there for me!”
Mike Batiste has the experience of playing in a full gym, but he still enjoys it too much. “Having 18.000 fans by your side always helps you. The fans are so important. We practice here, ok, there are no fans then, but this is what we work for; to please our fans and to please our organisation. So every time we have fans like this is a really big plus for us, because even when we play down they cheer and they push us to do better. So, I am happy that they came out and the reason why we won this today was because of them today”.
Regarding the game against Zalgiris Kaunas, Batiste stated: “The game was not so easy. We had a big lead and then they fought and they cut it down to eight. They made it into the game. We had to regroup in the half time and find our rhythm again. This is basketball. Some games are going to be like this, where in stretches will be like that: We are not going to have rhythm, we are going to miss shots, but at the same time we’ll have to fight and play hard. I think when we came back after halftime and having settled down a little bit go over some things and adjust a little bit, we came out and we found our rhythm again and we put the game away.
I am very happy the way we played. This game and also the past game showed our capability for this year. Hopefully we can continue with this rhythm this week”.
