Ataman for Panathinaikos – Barcelona: “We need more help than bench players”

He spoke of his nodal encounter with Barcelona at OAKA (22/3) for the 31st Euroleague race and stressed among others that it is not the time to… cry for absentees and problems. Panathinaikos coach Erkin Ataman stood for the help the team will need from the players of the bench in order to overcome Barcelona’s high obstacle and take the most decisive step towards winning the seat advantage in the Euroleague playoffs. Detailedly what the Turkish technician stated : For the game with Barcelona and for whether the games of the 30th race paved the way for 2nd place for Panathinaikos : “We must only think about tomorrow’s game with Barcelona. Yesterday’s game is over. So we need to be ready and tough to play coming. Barcelona had a major defeat to Fenerbachse and should both the team and people be ready. I want to have the familiar… aggression we show at our headquarters. The four games we have left are like finals. Of course, if we don’t miss any games, we’ll be in second or third place. But every game is like a final and that goes for the other teams. There is a great “fight” for six – seven teams, even Maccabi Tel Aviv and Virtus Bologna are two wins away. It will be very important and very difficult tomorrow’s game, surely. Barcelona lost yesterday, but is in 2nd place of Euroleague, one of the most powerful groups of the institution. Our opponents are candidates for the title. It will be a very difficult game for us.” For Panathinaikos’ “keys” until the finale of the season : “You must be tough, not give up. We also need more help than bench players. Yesterday we played with only six players, we had no contribution from the others. We can’t play all the games like this. We hope that the rest of them will give intensity and results. It’s not enough tension in itself. At this level we want good appearances. I hope the players who yesterday did not help will do so tomorrow.” For Luca Vildosa and absentees : “I don’t know if he’ll be in the dozen. She’s been practicing after a month. I need ready players at this level, who have done minimum three to four trainings. Unfortunately, we also need Kostas Antetokounbo, who gave us a lot when he was healthy. It’s very difficult to personally understand a major injury when there’s no surgery. I don’t know. This is not the time to cry about players who are not ready or feel well. It’s time to be tough, ready and use all available athletes well.”