By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The intensity, specially on defense, was the key for Laboral Kutxa’s win against Panathinaikos in Game 1, as coach Velimir Perasovic said in the press conference.
As he explained: “I think it was a game in which we put a lot of energy, but it’s also true that they were not as accurate as they usually are. We won showing courage, especially in the second quarter when we got the lead and started believing we could win this game. We had a more or less comfortable end of the game, but I’m sure that it won’t be that way on Friday. We played a good game, and they didn’t. We played well in defense, we rebounded well, played intense and we managed to control the turnovers after a bad moment in the first quarter. Aggressiveness and intensity were key tonight, and helped us a lot.”
Panathinaikos coach Aleksandar Djordjevic agreed: “We just didn’t respond to their physical game, they are a team with many athletic abilities and even though we prepared for that and we tried to do things the right way, we were not capable of it. Every time we lowered the advantage, they came up with big threes. They scored 13 three pointers. It’s huge in a game like this. Without a good shooting night you cannot play a game like this. We must play the next one with a knife between the teeth; I need to see fire in our eyes if we want to win this round because it’s the only way to go to the Final Four. ”
The star of Laboral Kutxa Giannis Bourousis, who was awarded for being the March MVP before the game, expects a different Panathinaikos in the next game: “We made the 1-0 in the series and we must continue this way to get the next one. It was a good win tonight, but we need to get three games, so we must stay focused, avoid mistakes and play hard. Panathinaikos can’t be that bad in the next game”.
His teammate Kim Tillie would like to see Laboral Kutxa repeating the same kind of effort: “We started with a lot of energy and playing very hard in defense, which was a key factor in tonight’s game. We managed to stop them on those things they wanted to do, and we rebounded pretty well too. We must come here on Friday with the same energy, the same will and be eager to play. We cannot think it’s going to be easy, so we need to play serious as we did today. Now it’s time to review the mistakes we made tonight so we don’t make them again on Friday.”
On the other side, Miroslav Raduljica, admitted that he was expecting more: “It was a tough game for us and a tough night. We knew it was going to be that way, but we made so many mistakes and this cannot happen in games like this. This is the playoffs and there are more games ahead to recover. Of course we know that if we want to win the next one, we must play different.”