Head Coach of Panathinaikos, Argyris Pedoulakis, stressed after the end of the encounter: “Overall, it was a bad game. In the beginning we had issues in defense, in the rotations, proof of this being the 40 points we suffered in the first half. We wanted to be faster in the paint and that is why we set up layouts using guys with more athletic features but our bad range cost us dearly. We were very bad at shooting, especially for a home game. Many of the players have no experience of such games and that is certainly a disadvantage. Also, in the first half Olympiacos was killing us with its big-time shots. We cannotrest at this though. Weproceed, look ahead… Thechampionship is a Marathon. Certainly we were not hoping for this derby so early, since as far as unison we are way behind. I would like to thank the fans very much for their presence”.
When asked about Sofoklis Schortsanitis’ game time, he stated: “Sofo going into action received the ball and passed it out since he was guarded by 5 players. The clean shots however failed to nail the target, so under no circumstances could we continue to play in that manner. So we changed the way we played and Sofo had no place in the specific way we decided to perform. Lasme was bad at free throws, something you do not expect, but he provided us with energy and many rebounds”.
Kostas Tsartsaris stated: “It was a derby that came way too early for all of us. We knew that our team was not at the aspired level. But tactics is not so significant. We wanted to get that extra factor into our game. Olympiacos came having done its homework well and injured by the defeat in Istanbul while we did nothing of what we had said. We were nearby in score we would have hoped for something better and did not have a clear mind. This defeat hurts, but we must raise our head high. There is still a long way to go. Even if we had won by 2-3 points, we would have still had to go to SEF to win. Our mind is as of now on Friday and the clash versus Olimpija Ljubljana but also on how we might improve”.
Head Coach of Olympiacos, Giorgos Bartzokas, spoke about the encounter and the free throws in the second half: “It was too early for this derby. At the moment, no team in Europe is ready yet. We were focused and good. We controlled the game and not once did we lose the lead. We got to quite substantial differences for a game that ended 64-60. In the second half we anticipated Panathinaikos’ counteraction especially through Diamantidis and Tsartsaris. They are great players and they proved it on yet another occasion. In the end we handled situations correctly and got the win. Panathinaikos is a great team with a very good coach and a tough home court. Maybe if we had been more careful in backcourt the gap would have been larger. Also, something that is quite impressive is that although Panathinaikos was chasing us in the score, it was its players that shot 17 free throws in the second half”.
Kostas Papanikolaou stressed: “It is very good that we managed to come back from our loss in Istanbul. We must not get carried away by this victory. Everything is defined in the championship’s play-off game 5. In the first half we were very good defensively but in the second half we were unable to keep up the pace. We allowed Panathinaikos to get to easy baskets but at that point certain players instrumented character, like Vassilis and Stratos. They held up the fort and psyched up the team. Itis a win like any other”.
