Two-time champion head coach Ergin Ataman did not mince words about his Anadolu Efes Istanbul team being taken to the limit before surviving at home 78-74 against ALBA Berlin on Friday in a back-and-forth battle that was anybody's game to win until very late.
"First of all, I can say that we played terrible basketball," Ataman said right after coming off the court.
He cited his team's over-reliance on Vasilije Micic and Will Clyburn, who indeed accounted for 36 of Efes's 72 field goal attempts, as evidence of a lack of flow.
"We didn't find any pick-and-roll points, we didn't find any low-post points," he added. "And it was a big problem in our offense."
Luckily for Efes, after ALBA tied 70-70 with under 6 minutes left, the team's defensive leader, center Bryant Dunston, had entered the game moments before and would stay until the end, making 2 big blocks while his team held the dangerous visitors to 2 points over more than 5 minutes.
And neither did Coach Ataman mince words about the impact of the EuroLeague's all-time leading shot-blocker and two-time Best Defender Trophy winners.
"The reason we won the game was the big contribution from Bryant Dunston defensively in the last quarter," Ataman concluded.
