By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
With a ticket for the EuroLeague Final Four in Abu Dhabi up for grabs, Panathinaikos and Anadolu Efes will go up against each other in Game 5 on Tuesday.
Before the decisive do-or-die matchup, Wenyen Gabriel joined Ergin Ataman to comment on tomorrow’s game. “We are expecting one of the biggest games of the season here at OAKA. We will play with this team for the seventh time this season,” he started.
“We know them, they know us. We know that we have to be aggressive tomorrow. Our fans will be here tomorrow, and we will play a good game,” Gabriel added.
As he wasn’t on the team last year, the former Maccabi Tel Aviv player talked with his teammates to have a preview of what Game 5 would mean. “Lorenzo [Brown] played for Maccabi last year, and he told me about the experience firsthand, about how loud it was here,” he also said.
“We have to stop their guards. We can’t let Shane Larkin get into rhythm. It’s a team game, and I don’t think the focus is only on the big men,” he said. “They are all different players. They bring something different to the game,” he also touched on Luca Banchi’s team’s frontcourt assets.
“[Vincent] Poirier is a lob threat, [Daniel] Oturu is a good two-way defender. They all do different things in the game, depending on what is needed. We have to manage all of them. They are all dangerous, and we will try to take them off the game,” Gabriel commented.
Finally, Wenyen Gabriel described Game 5 as a “dogfight. “They are a very good team, which was expected. We are a good team, they are too. This series has been a dogfight as we expected, and tomorrow, it will be a dogfight as well,” he said.
“It’s gonna be about who will be more aggressive at first. We have to be aggressive on our own court, but also relaxed, play our game, and the result will show.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Eurokinissi