Erkin Ataman in front of Virtus – Panathinaikos: “Protect second place in Euroleague”

Read everything that his coach said, shortly before the departure of the “prasine” mission, in view of the struggle at the seat of Virtus Bologna. Panathinaikos left for Bologna, in view of his tomorrow race at the seat of Virtus (29/3, 21:30), for the 32nd Euroleague race. In statements before departure, the coach of the “greens”, Erkin Ataman admitted that this is a difficult game, which is important for both teams, and reiterated that the last three games of the Greek team in the regular season will be like finals. Erkin Ataman’s statements to the press representatives: “I expect a difficult game. It’s a very important game for both teams. The last three games in the regular season will be like finals. Now we are in second place and our goal is to try to defend it. I have huge respect for Coach. Bunky, Virtus has many experienced players and plays at its headquarters. She plays differently on her field than on the away games. I’m waiting for a tough game, we have to play team, split the ball and definitely play offensive defense like we did at OAKA. It will be important to have options in all positions in terms of time and minutes of participation. How we present ourselves is even more important than the fact that all players are available. Sometimes we all play and we’re not good. Sometimes we play with six players, as happened in the last 2-3 games, and we are 90% of our performance and won the games.” For his part Costas Antetokounbo said: “It will certainly be a difficult game, they are a good team. They play at their headquarters, it is a very important game for us and for them. They have very good players on the post like Sengelia. It has a very good creation, we must lay a great foundation on this and try to stop it.” On whether he expected the presence of Panathinaikos AKTOR in 2nd place after 31 races: “I won’t say we didn’t expect it. Thank God we played well, we’re in second place trying to maintain it. The last three games we have are “finals” for us”. While for his return from his injury: “I feel ready to play and help the team”.