Ergin Ataman spoke after Panathinaikos’ 78–65 road victory over Mykonos in Round 8 of the Greek Basketball League.
Kendrick Nunn led Panathinaikos with 23 points. Alex Samontourov added 13, while Kenneth Faried contributed 10 points and a performance index rating of 18. For Mykonos, Khalid Moore scored 17 points.
After the game, coach Ergin Ataman shared his views. He also spoke about the team’s health status:
“It’s exciting to come to Mykonos to play a first-division match. The arena may be small, but I liked the organization, the atmosphere, and the passion that all the authorities and people here have for basketball. Mykonos has great potential, many sponsors, and big companies that make a lot of money during the summer—I know that. I hope Mykonos continues its journey in the first division.”
“It wasn’t easy for us to stay 100% focused, especially after the EuroLeague game in which we played a perfect second half. When you come to Mykonos, it’s not easy to motivate the players for a domestic league match, so we had a lot of concentration issues. We missed many open shots, three-pointers. We scored only 4 out of 24 attempts, which is different from our usual performance. Mykonos fought until the end, but we found a way to win the game.”
“We didn’t use Juancho because he has a knee injury and a back issue. The doctors told me not to play him. We also have a problem with Osman, who stayed in Athens due to the ankle injury he suffered in the previous EuroLeague game, but I believe that on Tuesday everyone will be on the court at 100% and will try to secure another win at OAKA.
“After Tuesday, we will have a EuroLeague break for the national teams. We will be fine. I believe Yurtseven will return on Tuesday. Holmes will hopefully join the team after the break.” – Ataman concluded.
After this game, Panathinaikos is set to face Partizan at home in Round 13 of the EuroLeague. Panathinaikos is on a three-game winning streak, while Partizan is struggling with just one win in their last six games.
