By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos Athens Ergin Ataman was unhappy with several aspects of his team’s performance in the Euroleague home game against Olympiacos Piraeus. But there was nothing that he disliked what he described as “softness” by pretty much everyone wearing Green tonight.
Including the fans.
“All of us: Me, players and atmosphere were soft tonight. We weren’t angry tonight,” Ataman said in the post-game presser after the loss of Panathinaikos to their archrival. “Everybody thinks [that the game] was spectacular. OK, spectacular. But basketball is played to win. We didn’t fight well tonight, all of us together.”
Ataman had previously mentioned that he expected something more from the fans of Panathinaikos, especially considering that this is the classic Greek derby. “Atmosphere was good. But I didn’t see the atmosphere that I live at Crvena Zvezda and Partizan Belgrade.”
Apart from congratulating Olympiacos and coach Giorgos Bartzokas for the victory during his opening statement, Ataman admitted one of his own mistakes in the first half.
“We weren’t enegetic tonight. Even me. I made a big mistake at the end of the first half. I was late to take the timeout and then we missed the short and gave them three points in the last second and we went to the locker room down eight points,” Ataman said. He was referring to a 3-point play by Sasha Vezenkov in transition.
Ataman also pointed out the errors his team made, especially when it came to defending against Evan Fournier. “We came back to the game but we made shameful defensive mistakes on the rotation to gave open shots to Fournier. He also made a crucial shot when we were up by 1 point.”