Ergin Ataman commented on Vassilis Spanoulis' delayed appearance at the postgame presser and made a short statement on Panathinaikos' loss to Monaco. His assistant coach, Christos Serelis, detailed what he thinks the EuroLeague champs are lacking during an interview on Greek TV.
According to the EuroLeague bylaws, the head coach of the visiting team appears first at the postgame presser.
| Player of the Game | |
|
EFF
35
|
| Alpha Diallo | |
| Points | 24 |
| Accuracy | 8-11 |
| Rebounds | 7 |
| Assists | 2 |
Vassilis Spanoulis spent roughly half an hour in AS Monaco's locker room in the OAKA arena following his stellar debut in the top competition that saw La Roca Team overtake hosts Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens 91-88 on Friday night.
When Spanoulis appeared before the press, it was five minutes before midnight local time. Hence, Ergin Ataman, as the head coach of the host team, had to wait until the Greek play-caller was done with his statements in order to take the floor.
"I spent a lot of minutes waiting inside," Ataman told the media as the long wait had increased the irritation caused by the loss.
"So, I think you made a lot of questions to Vassilis that he deserved because they won," he continued addressing the Greek journalists who were in the room.
"We didn't play good basketball night. We made a lot of ridiculous turnovers, missed a lot of open shots," the Turkish tactician noted.
"Monaco played much better, had 26 assists, made open shots. We didn't manage well the last minute of the game, where we had the chance to win", Ataman concluded his analysis.
In fact, Panathinaikos were up 84-81 with two minutes left to play, before Vitto Brown, Alpha Diallo and, more importantly, Jordan Loyd made crucial baskets down the stretch. With the exception of the third quarter, when they conceded 15 points, Panathinaikos allowed Monaco too much during the game.
Half of PAO's players (6 out of 12) scored 4 points or less (Lorenzo Brown, Cedi Osman, Dinos Mitoglou, Omer Yurtseven), or didn't play at all (Dimitris Moraitis, Panagiotis Kalaitzakis).
"We were very bad on offense against Monaco's starting lineup (Mike James, Jordan Loyd, Alpha Diallo, Vitto Brown, Donatas Motiejunas)," assistant coach Christos Serelis pointed out in a post-game interview to NOVASPORTS.
"I think Mathias [Lessort] only missed one 2-pointer, he should have taken the ball more, we have created conditions for him to take the ball in some mismatches and against Brown.
On the other hand, they opened up the floor quite a lot and we didn't hand out many assists. Them making two big shots stressed us quite a bit and our offensive plays at the end were quite bad," Ataman's collaborator told NOVASPORTS.
Serelis, who served as the team's interim head coach during the 2022-23 season, stressed that Panathinaikos "isn't a team that will score 100 points if the score goes high."
"We are a team that will score 90 if we play better defense than the one we've been playing in the last games. We get confidence from defense," he argued.
"You can't have an arena like that, an amazing atmosphere, and not get fans involved into the game. The team is to blame for that, of course. When we managed to pull off 2-3 good defensive possessions, the game turned around. When everything is decided by one possession, the opponent team has the advantage because they've got nothing to lose," he added.
Serelis admitted that Panathinaikos' overall image is worrisome. Not so much because of the Greens' 7-5 overall record or their two straight losses to Zalgiris Kaunas and Monaco, but because the team's mindset seems to have changed.
"We know what's happening, we're not the defensive-minded team we used to be," he said.
"We don't need to overanalyze it: the offensive talent that we have and our guard play -whether it's execution or creation- are simply not enough for us to win games," Serelis delved deeper into the problem.
"It's our defense that gave us the trophy last year and that's what we need to do again. We're not doing it, we're not putting in the energy that we want, we don't sacrifice our bodies and our hands and that's why we don't win the last few games. It's clear. It's not something we have to look for.
And the guys know it, we talk about it. But that's not enough, we have to show it too. It's not too late, last year we were on the same record, maybe a little bit worse," Serelis recalled.
"We've made some good away wins and if we had managed to stay unbeaten at home, we would have been in a better position for what's ahead."
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