The positive feelings about the victory, but most of all about the performance that Panathinaikos had, were reflected on Zeljko Obradovic’s face that saw his players perform excellent basketball and mark 1-0 wins in the Euroleague playoffs. These feelings were also expressed in words during the press conference after the end of the game against Maccabi Electra.
“We played a very good game. My team competed with great concentration and great will. Once again everything started with our excellent defense, while we were also excellent in reading the opponents’ defense as well. Everyone saw that the game had been over already since the first half.”
Referring to Thursday’s game, Panathinaikos’ coach underlined: ‘We must forget all this and play equally well and with the same concentration on Thursday too. We must bear in mind that Maccabi is a great team, with very good players, a very good coach, and will most certainly try to react and play much better.”
Obradovic did not omit to mention the fans too: “Congratulations to my players for the way they played and also congratulations to the fans that attended the OAKA and helped us so much at a crucial moment in our European journey this season.”
Blatt: “We did not show up on court”
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv head coach, David Blatt, disenchanted by his team’s performance, noted: “There is not much to say about tonight’s game. The bad news is that we did not show up on court. The good news is that nothing has been judged yet, since there are also other games ahead of us. We have played a very bad game, whereas Panathinaikos played very well. We are looking forward to the game on Thursday. It is not uncommon after a long stretch without games of such level to not be as ready as you must be when you have to. Simply put, Panathinaikos had great speed, great physicality, and great competitiveness. That is what shocked us!”
As to whether Maccabi will be in a position to react on Thursday, Blatt stated: “We did not lose by 50 points as did last season Montepaschi Siena by Olympiakos, but we could have fought better to turn the game around in the second half. On Thursday we must come out and play. The fact that upon returning on court in the second half we played more passionately, more aggressively, and better basketball – by no means excellent though, not by any stretch of the imagination – is something of a good sign for us for the next games. Basketball is a funny game: what you see one day, you may not see the next. I am certain that when you saw Unics Kazan and EA7 Emporio Armani come here you did not believe they would win; neither did I. But they did win; it happened and in a series of games everything is possible. Panathinaikos is a huge team and enjoys my fullest respect, but Thursday is a new day. I hope that on Thursday Panathinaikos does not play better and that we do not play worse, but certainly one will influence the other. In the first half we made too many childish turnovers. Panathinaikos was literally shooting….lay-ups. When you give the possibility to a team such as Panathinaikos to kill you, it will. We did not find ourselves being at the level we had to be. It was in all honesty at the level of junior high basketball championships.”
