The very good job done by his players during the clash versus Anadolu Efes became a reference point for Argyris Pedoulakis in the after-game Press Conference at the OAKA.
“It was a very good win for us in a very good game. Efes had rhythm and confidence arriving here. Our win was based on the defensive part mainly, since Efes is a team which gets easy baskets in open court and off secondary fast breaks. When the big men have not returned, the guards appeal, playing one-on-one and get to solutions using their athletic features. During the second half we bonded our defense further, we were better in rotations, avoided committing many turnovers and in the team with Jonas (Maciulis) at PF position we became even more aggressive and appealing, we played more competitively in defense, broke open Efes’ distances and it became easier for us to win. Roko did an exceptional job in rebounds and backcourt, in general the guards helped out a whole deal in gathering boards. This is where the win was founded and then things started to lean into our side of the court in the arena: When the game left the open field and turned into a set 5Vs5 game, at which we were better”.
When questioned about how close Panathinaikos is to qualifying he stated: “From the beginning of the season we only look at the next game. We cannot change it now. We have still many tough games. We are looking at the game versus Unicaja Malaga and KAOD. What is to happen, we can only wait and see when we make our final inventory. We are not going to change this logic of ours now. Our goal is to improve our image, game by game and be more competitive. And it is also very positive that in this game there was a “must” and the team responded to the “must”. That is what makes the team better”.
As far as the final standings, Pedoulakis stated: “We had stated that the gap would be the last thing we should have on our minds. We challenged this gap in the end but this part is of little importance for us”.
The Anadolu Efes Head Coach, Oktay Mahmuti, stated: “Congratulations to Panathinaikos for winning. We played good basketball for 35 minutes but at some point we lost our discipline in defense, but also in offense we failed to perform as we should. In the end we were defeated, since Panathinaikos established a good pace in shooting range and snatched the win. We lost one of the goals we had since we lost, but on the other hand we did not lose the gap we had won by in the first round, that of 14 points. We have a long way to go and we will keep up the effort”.
