In the press conference after the game, Zeljko Obradovic spoke about the mistakes Panathinaikos had made, underlining that the “clover” must improve in this area in view of the game on Thursday, while he also called the fans to come and support the team in the second final.
Panathinaikos’ head coach noted: “Congratulations to Olympiakos for their victory. In the playoffs, the first game and being energized are very important elements. Olympiakos played well and by winning got in the lead as far as victories are concerned. Now, we must see what did not work well and correct our mistakes. I would like to take the opportunity and call Panathinaikos’ fans to come to the second game, respecting Olympiakos and supporting our team. On Thursday, the main issue must be basketball.”
Stratos Perperoglou on his turn underlined: “We lost the first game in the series, but there is still a long way ahead. We must be focused and return here to get the one victory we need to “break” Olympiakos’ home advantage. We came here to play basketball and the atmosphere was just fine. I hope that everything goes smoothly and that we enjoy great games.”
Dusan Ivkovic said: “This first game was important to me. We have an opponent that is a very experienced team and I believe that we won fair and square. This was the fourth game between us and was decided in the details. We started out with quite enough pressure in the game. I do not believe that Sato pressuring Mantzaris came as a big surprise. We turned the game around in the second quarter and, despite losing quite enough free throws, we won. We played team-spirited basketball; Hines and Printezis were very good, and so was Gecevicius too.”
Finally, Kyle Hines underlined: “It was a very difficult victory today. We have made the first step. In this series, it is important to maintain the home advantage. The game on Thursday is going to be very difficult and tomorrow in practice we will start from scratch.”
