By John Rammas/ irammas@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos is a perennial EuroLeague contender; this season, the Final Four will be held at the club’s home court.
However, after the defeat against Barcelona, coach Ergin Ataman didn’t hesitate to speak harshly about his team.
As Ataman said in his flash interview after the game: “Barcelona played a much better game than us. Congratulations to them. I think that everybody who saw the game here and on TV, saw that we are not the best team this season in Europe. We have a lot of things to work on, we are not ready 100% and with this basketball, it will be very difficult not just to go to the Final Four, but to go to the playoffs”.
Ataman didn’t want to leave any doubt about his opinion: “We are worse than the last two years in this situation”.
Speaking about the game in the press conference, the Panathinaikos coach added: “The worst thing you can do is give confidence to the team that plays on the road. We made this mistake, playing soft. We tried to change something, but after the point difference in the first quarter, our defense was terrible and Barcelona punished us”.