By Javier Molero/ jmolero@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos beat Real Madrid on the road, and Ergin Ataman was more than satisfied in the presser after the game.
With Kenneth Faried and TJ Shorts shining in Spain, the Turkish coach talked about the win.
As he said: “Great victory for us. Real Madrid is a great team and is their first loss at home this season. We started the game with a great point difference, very close and smart defense to protect the paint. We had a great defense on Campazzo and Tavares”.
“In offense, this was our best game on the road against an aggressive and great team like Real Madrid“, he added. After that, he focused on TJ Shorts, a player he said last week he was “unhappy with 90% os his performance so far”.
“I had a little meeting with TJ Shorts. I told him he struggled. I asked him if he was happy with his performance, and he told me no”, Ataman responded to a Eurohoops question on the matter. “We talked to each other, and he also played really well in Paris. Tonight he played his best game with Panathinaikos“, he added.
“He is a great player; he needs to understand our system. In this game, I’m 90% satisfied”, he said with a smile on his face.
The other star was Kenneth Faried. The big man scored 16 points and added 8 rebounds. Ataman had some great words for him: “In these last two games, he’s like our medicine. If you check the career of Faried, he has had an amazing career in the NBA. He also played against my team, Turkey, in the 2014 World Cup with Stephen Curry, James Harden, Anthony Davis…”.
“He was in CSKA, after that he played in China, Taiwan, Puerto Rico… I didn’t expect him would give this immediately to us. He gave us what we need. In these two games, he replaced Mathias (Lessort) like Lessort plays. Now he is very important for our future. He is a high-level player, we knew this, the players understood this“, Ataman concluded.
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