By Marinos Printezis/ info@eurohoops.net
The battle between Barcelona and Panathinaikos is about to start and Erazem Lorbek talks on Eurohoops.net about the key facts of the series. The Slovenian forward wants the ticket for London, but doen’t have in his mind the word “revenge” for what happened two years before in the play offs.
– What did you change, since January when you stopped to have ups and downs. You have record 25-3?
“Nothing. We played better on offense and defense. We needed more time to play together and the automatisms we needed after having so many new players. It was a matter of time”.
– Panathinaikos and Barcelona have the best defence in the Euroleague. Do you believe that this will be the key of the games?
“I don’t know. It will be a mix of many things. Good defense, good scoring, control of defensive rebound, transitions. Both teams are very good and little details can decide a game”.
– The majority says that you are the big favourite of the series against Panathinaikos. Do you agree? Do you feel more pressure?
“Both teams will have pressure because both teams want the same goal. Advance to the Final 4. I don’t think we are favourites. I would say the series are 50-50”.
– Do you have in mind the series against Panathinaikos two years ago? Do you fee it’s time for revenge?
“It is not time for revenge. We are very excited for these series. How many players played those games for Panathinaikos? I guess 2. We played 4. We want to win because it’s time to play and win. Revenge in sports is not an issue”.
– The playoffs series are too long. Do you think that the depth of the rosters, the ability of each coach to use the most possible players on the rotation, will be really important to the outcome?
“The rotation will be very important for both teams and even more more us, from the moment we have also the games for our national league, during the playoff series. We have no time to rest. We played today, on Thursday and we will play again on Sunday, for Liga Endesa. And we need to play good and complete games in order to qualify to the Final 4″.
– Which of Panathinaikos’ players you have to stop, first of all?
“All of them!!! Panathinaikos always has good players. When you play for a big team, like PAO you need to be good and talented. What about if we only stop one or two players? The rest of them can crush us. And that is why we need to stop the all and play our game”.