By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos Athens coach Ergin Ataman heavily criticized guard Lucas Vildoza for his lackluster shooting performnace in a hard-earned Greek League win at Kolossos Rhodes. The Argentinian player finished the game with 1 out of 7 shots over the 22:42 minutes he spent on the floor.
“I want to complain about some players like Luca Vildoza,” Ataman said after the game to ERT TV. “[He shot] 1 out of 7 field goals. Nobody is this club for holidays. Everybody must play here every game for their performance. Players like Luca Vildoza can’t finish with 1 out of 7 field goals. Then don’t complain when you don’t play in EuroLeague. Now, I ‘attack’ my players for this. Also Dinos Mitoglou’s performance was poorer.”
“We need to be ready,” Ataman added and sent a warning ahead of Panathinaikos‘ crucial EuroLeague home game vs. ALBA Berlin on Thurday (11/4). The Greens need to beat the bottom-placed team in the standings to secure homecourt advantage in the playoffs.
“Everybody thinks that everything is ours in the EuroLeague,” Ataman mentioned. “We’ll play a very important game against ALBA Berlin on Thursday. If we play like this, we will lose all this season in our last EuroLeague game.”
“Horrible performance tonight. We played a terrible game,” Ataman had previously mentioned when he began his flash interview. “When you start to think that you are big and you come to the court to win any game without putting hustle and without desire, it’s like this. We won by luck tonight.”
“Luck” maybe played a factor but there was also Marius Grigonis’ hot hand. The Lithuanian guard finished with 6 out of 6 triples and 23 points overall. Kendrick Nunn also had a key basket to put Panathinaikos up 75 – 74 with 1:1o to play.