KK Zagreb is Panathinaikos opponent tomorrow. The “Greens” are hosting the Croatian team at the OAKA indoors arena in the context of the Euroleague 7th competition date (30/11, 22.00). Today at the press conference, Zeljko Obradovic referred to tomorrow’s game and went on to dismiss any and all excuses and asking all his players to show presence and contribution.
He started off by talking about the game against KK Zagreb: “we are facing a team that is really different from the one we faced in Croatia about a month ago. They play much better and, with the exception of their last game in the Adriatic League, they have won two Euroleague games and two Adriatic League games, so they have had four victories in a row. And there is something important too: they play much better in defense. They have creators such as Mulaomerovic, Simon, Ford; shooters such as Ozbolt and Rancic; they have two players in positions 4 and 5 who pop-out and shoot for three points, Heytvelt and May; there is Kasun, who is an important player for the inside game of the team. The key will be defense. We must take care of their pop-out game and it will definitely be the key in this game.”
The first question concerned the reaction he expects from his team after the defeat from Kavala: “For us, tomorrow’s game is one more Euroleague game. We are facing KK Zagreb, which we defeated very easily in the first round. I repeat once again that this is a different team now and plays differently compare to the first round. Our goal is the same as it was the first day: to take it one game at a time with the purpose of qualifying to the Top16. That is all…”
Obradovic did not try to beat around the bush as far as his team is concerned and the fact the losing the lead in a game is a mistake that keeps repeating: “The truth is that we are not playing good basketball for 40 minutes. Let us take for example the game against CSKA. We lost in overtime despite having the lead throughout the entire game. The same thing happened with Brose Baskets. In Euroleague all the teams have quality. It is the little details that decide the winner, the outcome of the game. If you lead in the third quarter by six points, with four minutes left, the opponents have no bonus, and you do not use the fouls, and receive seven points from them, you simply lack concentration. We must play with big concentration until the last minute. Without this it is not possible to achieve anything. How many times have I repeated that here? Let me take for example a game that we won, the game in Málaga. You all know how we won, but the question is why we got in that situation, why did we get to that. We had a 15-point lead. It is not even necessary to talk about Kavala. I said the same things that I said after defeating Málaga: we need more players. They must all be ready to help the team. Nothing has changed… we are trying to use the video, analyze the games, and help the players. Nothing has changed. Finding excuses is easy. I read somewhere that the team was tired. This is the stupidest thing anyone can say. KK Zagreb rode a bus for 9 hours in Serbia to play and returned, and today they are travelling to Athens, and tomorrow they are playing a Euroleague game. Will they have an excuse if they lose tomorrow? Barcelona too had arrived in Athens at four o’clock in the morning and then beat us easily. What does this mean? Travelling, tiredness, and blah, blah, blah…It is not true. These are for those who are looking for excuses. Tiredness is only here: in one’s mind. There are only two players for whom tiredness might have been a factor: Diamantidis and Sato; maybe just for these two. I started the game without Diamantidis to give him some time to rest, but unfortunately this was not possible. Basketball is a simple but at the same time difficult game. Many things are important. Before each game we always want to have more possessions than our opponents, to control the rebounds, the steals and the turnovers. In Kavala we had 13 more possessions, but lost easily. Being on a good day certainly plays a role. When you lose 10 free throws, as we did, same as we did against CSKA Moscow or Brose it is bad. If, at the same time, your opponent is on a good day, then things go tough. Kavala, for example, was having a very good day.”
The next question, regarding what he means when he says “we need more players”, practically gave Obradovic the chance to continue on what he had already started saying: “We need all players to play better… There is nothing to read between the lines; there is nothing hidden. This is what we need. We have players who do not help the team. I have spoken directly to them, as I always do all these years that I have been with Panathinaikos. They have not forgotten how to play basketball; they have quality. The point is for them to have concentration and motivation. If you have no motivation, the rest is not enough. Both these things are necessary. And one more thing that is equally important is for us to respect ourselves and the – I do not know how many – millions of Panathinaikos’ fans. Let us be honest. The Giannakopoulos’ family has said that this is their last year with the team. Maybe for us and for some players this is also the last year with the team. We must understand this. Our obligation to fight is bigger. We must rise to the occasion and honor our obligations. This is why we must respect ourselves and understand the way we must play. This is why we must all start with ourselves. I am not one who makes the best of decisions; I make mistakes; I know that well. But we must give it 100%, fight all we can in a game. That is the issue. If we lose after having given it our all it does not matter. You cannot always win; but the problem is the way that you lose. This is what I want to see; this is what I say to my players. I understand that it is not possible to always prevail, but we must be very direct with the players. This is the only way. We see our mistakes, we talk about them.”
Zeljko Obradovic talked about the injured players too. He stressed that Aleks Maric is expected to normally be in the lineup, whereas Stratos Perperoglou and Kostas Tsartsaris are more likely to be 100% ready after New Year’s.
*The past game history between the two teams is limited to the game they played in the first round, when Panathinaikos prevailed in Croatia by 81-62.
