The passion and the will were two elements Panathinaikos demonstrated on the floor against CSKA Moscow in Game 3 and Fragkiskos Alvertis spoke about these elements among other things at the press conference.
"We managed to force the series into game 4, something that is really very important. we have our chance and I hope that we'll take advantage of it. We had two good first quarters, but we got stuck in the second half. The passion and the will gave us the victory, something that becomes obvious just by looking at the rebounds. This game is over for us and now we are working on the next one".
The coach of Panathinaikos was asked if he believes that the Greens can tie the series in 2-2: "I believe that we can. We are playing at home, in front of our fans. There are things we can do well and we demonstrated that in the first game and today. Everything moves fast. Every two days we have to play. We must learn from our mistakes and to correct them".
Asked about the poor offense in the last two games, Alvertis replied: "We had two different faces in each of the halftimes. Our problem is that we don't move and we cannot move the ball. We had some chances to go to fast breaks but we didn't take advantage of them".
Regarding the turning point of tonight's game he said: "As it was obvious, defense was the key. We were excellent in defense and although we weren't as good in offense, we reached the victory. We have to be more productive. We are working on a daily basis and we have to show our work on the floor. These are all theories of course. Right now all that matters is to win".
Finally, after been asked Alvertis stated that he expect more in offense from some players: "From each player you expect more. There are players that haven't played as they are able to in offense. But, they still help the team through defense and their presence in general on the floor. The team wins as a team. If some players help us a little bit more, it will be important".
Ettore Messina (CSKA Moscow, coach) stated: "I want to congratulate Panathinaikos. They deserved to win. We played hard, but not with the necessary quality to win the game. In the first quarter Panathinaikos took the lead and we made mistakes. Now, we are in 2-1 and we have to prepare for Game 4".
