By John Rammas/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos took a much precious win over EuroLeague title contender CSKA Moscow in Rick Pitino’s debut and center Stephane Lasme discussed how the Hall of Fame coach’s influence on his team’s game. Especially on the defensive end.
“He told us that we are better than what we showed until now and to play with confidence,” Lasme told Eurohoops. “He asked us to focus on defense, he tried us to make us understand his philosophy on defense and he gave us a lot of freedom. Surely, he’ll make some changes. But after the head coach change, we players also talked about what we want and we had similar opinions about it.”
Pitino likes his teams implementing a full-court press defense and that’s what Panathinaikos did vs. CSKA with successful results.
“That’s what he asked us more than anything else. He wanted to immediately pass his philosophy to us. Be more aggressive on defense. We tried to adapt to his “wants”. We like how we played and hopefully, we will continue in this way and even better.”
Lasme finished with season-high numbers in points (19) and rebounds (9), making up for a series of lackluster performances in previous games. “I wasn’t good in the previous games for many and different reasons. I don’t want to go into details and I don’t like to use excuses. The important thing is that I’m here now.”
Photo: EuroLeague