Alba Berlin is Panathinaikos’ next opponent. Tomorrow (January 16, 21.00, Novasports 3) the two teams will be facing one another in THYEuroleague Top16 Game 4. The Greens will be travelling without Dimitris Diamantidis who has suffered an ankle sprain.
Kostas Tsartsaris referring to the encounter, stated: “We want and we need to win. We are competing at a tough home court, against a tough team. It has always been like that with German teams. We, having Dimitris sidelined, have our work cut out for us because his presence is a great chapter in our book. We are called upon to fill his shoes. And it is high time we stept up in our game since although we won two games we failed however to perform pleasingly. We aim also to play a nice game”.
Diamantidis’ absence was also a point to which Jonas Maciulis stuck to in his quotes, player though who dwells only upon winning: “It is a certainty that we have a tougher mission without Diamantidis. Each and every one of us will have more work to do on the floor without him. What we must do and what we want to do is exactly the same thing: Win. We will be coming across a tough team, one that fights at the boards, department in which we must present ourselves an improved team. As also we must enforce our pace. In any event we want to prevail and we will do anything in order to achieve it because it is a necessity for the ensuing season”.
Vassilis Xanthopoulos was asked if fatigue exists after consecutive encounter obligations: “Exhaustion does exist, but I do not regard it to be any different than other years. We are Pros’ and we leave all thoughts behind once we step out on court. We know that we have a tough mission, but on the other hand there is no such thing as an easy Top16 game. We have watched a great deal of video, we have analyzed our opponent and we know what kind of a team we are up against. It is a tough team and we must take control over the game’s rhythm breaking away from tip-off in order to be able to endure its tough game and get to come up as the tougher opponent on the floor. Alba has 10-11 quality players who can make a difference and play a defining role in the evolution of the encounter”.
History
Panathinaikos and Alba Berlin have met up 6 times in the past. Panathinaikos has first say in history leading 4-2 in wins.
Panathinaikos – Alba Berlin (Germany) 4-2
2000-01 Euroleague 92-75 71-79*
2000-01 Euroleague 87-77 71-69*
1999-00 Euroleague 73-54* 70-72
Numbers
Panathinaikos needs 34 points in order to reach 20.000 points in Euroleague. This very marker has already been reached by Caja Laboral, Barcelona, Olympiakos and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Kostas Tsartsaris will be flying ahead to be alone in second place of the Euroleague all time participators list with his 224 games. He is also 5 threes shy of 100 in the league.
Stephane Lasme still leads Euroleague in blocked shots behind 2 per game.
Alba Berlin has been defeated in all five of its last Euroleague games and is running a 0-9 streak in its Top16 game history.
