Panathinaikos will be departing today for Slovenia , where tomorrow (21.30, NovaSports3) it will be facing Olimpija Ljubljana in THY Euroleague Game Day 3. Gaios Skordilis, Vassilis Charalampopoulos and Giorgos Diamantakos will not be following the delegation.
Panathinaikos Head Coach, Argyris Pedoulakis stressed: “We have a tough game ahead of us versus a great team. It has great rhythm in its game, it has three great guards in its perimeter who essentially get the game going and it has numerous solutions in the paint. We must function exceptionally in backcourt and especially when defending on their pick n roll. In offense they play behind great enthusiasm, they bring energy to their game, they appeal patiently when they are unable to get to an easy basket something that makes them extremely dangerous. We hope to establish our pace and our automatisms and I believe that game by game we will be presenting ourselves improved. It is a good thing that we have to give big battles early, because we get experience and become better as a team. It will be a tough matchup for both teams”.
Sofoklis Schortsanitis stated: “We are coming from a tough derby across from Olympiacos. We were unable to get the win but we fought at it to the end and proved that we are a competitive team. Now we are to face Olimpija in an away game. We hope for our first away win in the league but we must be extremely cautious when it comes to our pace because they are usually a very strong team at home. We must control this element. What we are interested in is to become a better team game by game”.
Mike Bramos added: “It is certainly going to be a tough encounter. Olimpija is an extremely good team with many great players; it is playing at home in front of its fans. Surely we must be very careful in order to nail the win. From our side we have left Olympiacos behind us. Our schedule is tough and we have to play consecutive high risk encounters but we must adjust to this program and do our duty. Olimpija is a team with great rhythm to its game, out of which we must set it. Also, they enjoy great three-point range so we must reduce the percentage and the number of shots made from the perimeter. If we manage it we will have made an important step towards victory”.
