Panathinaikos departed today from Athens to Vilnius, with a stopover in Frankfurt. The team will remain in Germany today and it will fly tomorrow to Lithuania for the first Euroleague game against Lietuvos Rytas (17/10, 21.45). Mike Bramos stayed in Athens, due to illness and if he feels better tomorrow he will join the team.
Just before boarding on the plane, Argyris Pedoulakis stated: "We need these official, strong games in order to find our rhythm. It was obvious at the game against Olympiacos that we had problem to find our rhythm. We also had problems concerning our physical condition, because of the numerous problems we had to face during our training camp. We have to find our homogeneity. We had problems in the pain, with players that are clearly not ready. It's something that we are going to solve through practices".
Regarding Bramos' condition, Pedoulakis stated: "Mike had to stay in bed. He is with fever at the hospital. If he is ok, he will travel tomorrow".
Pedoulakis added: "The first thing we have to do is to solve the problems that came up because of the injuries and Eurobasket. We have to become a team on the floor. There are guys that don't even know the plays yet. We have many miles to cover as a team".
Loukas Mavrokefalidis stated: "It will be a very difficult game, like it was difficult games against Olympiacos. Surprises always hide somewhere at the premieres and we already experienced that yesterday, when our opponents got the win fair and square. Lietuvos Rytas has played already five official games and it's already in a good rhythm, but that may not mean anything. We have a good, strong team and we are sure that we can play better than we did against Olympiacos. Lietuvos Rytas may have more games till now, but Euroleague is different than other competitions".
Finally, Roko Leni Ukic, added: "I travel with the team in order to play. I am not in the best possible condition after my injury, but if I can help the team in any way, I am here to do it. What I need is to find my rhythm as soon as possible, after missing practices all this time because of my injury. The game against Lietuvos Rytas will be difficult for us. It's a very good team. We want to begin on the right foot in Euroleague and to get into rhythm, in order to get as many wins as possible. We are going step by step, one game at a time. In order to achieve our big goal we have to achieve 100 smaller goals that we set every single day. Otherwise we are not going to make it".
