The coach of Panathinaikos, Alexandar Djordjevic stated after the game against Pinar Karsiyaka Izmir: “It is one of those games that you keep your concentration for 40 minutes. Especially in the first quarter we managed to play uptempo, something that didn’t happen at the same period in the Greek League game against Olympiacos. We kept playing that playing style for 30 minutes and I am sure that we can improve our game in the near future. I don’t know if James Gist had the best game of his career, but he played really well. Dimitris Dimantidis read the game and was a main factor, while Nick Calathes dished 11 assists. Karsiyaka is a fast and athletic team. They played well last week and beat Barcelona; this was a motivation for us to get prepared properly. The concentration and the desire of our guys played a major role tonight. Defense can be improved much more and the whole team is still progressing. When we move the ball like tonight and have that energy it is sure that we can produce good basketball.”
The coach of Pinar Karsiyaka Izmir said: “We had a very bad start in the game, especially in the first half and made easy mistakes. There is no doubt that we played in a tough court against a very good and well-organized opponent. While Panathinaikos made a lot of open shots, we had a low shooting percentage and we lacked our concentration. To be honest, if we will play like tonight, we can’t beat any team. Congratulations to Panathinaikos.”
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