The Turkish coach is demanding defensive improvement before Efes showdown
Coach Ataman fires warning shot to Panathinaikos ahead of playoffs
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Regular Season
Round 34 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens warmed up for the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs by taking a rousing overtime 111-104 victory over Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade in Athens on Friday, but Greens coach Ergin Ataman was far from happy.
The reigning champ had to launch a dramatic late comeback to force the extra period after falling behind by 8 points with less than three minutes remaining, and ultimately took the W after dominating overtime to claim the regular season’s best home record, 14-3.
Ataman, however, was looking at the big picture after a second consecutive high-scoring game in Athens, with Paris Basketball having triumphed 98-101 in another thriller in Round 32. And with red-hot Anadolu Efes Istanbul up next, Ataman is more than wary of the threat posed by his former team.
"This mentality will not take us so far," Ataman told EuroLeague TV immediately after Friday’s win. "This is a very dangerous situation."
"One home game before we took 101 points against Paris, tonight before overtime it was 96 points. With this mentality we will lose in the playoffs and we will not advance to the Final Four. One hundred percent, I am not satisfied. It’s nothing to win this game. If we play like this, Efes will go to the Final Four and we will watch the Final Four on the TV."
In-form forward Juancho Hernangomez, who netted a career-high 18 points and completed a double-double by also grabbing 11 rebounds, echoed the sentiments of his coach as he warned: "It’s tough to beat us at home, but we cannot play with fire every time. Let’s get ready. We didn’t play our best basketball yet, and that’s the good thing for us."
However, the Greens were able to survive their defensive frailty thanks to another stellar performance from Kendrick Nunn, who also recorded a double-double as he netted 31 points on 6-of-10 three-point shooting and dished a personal best 10 assists.
That latest scoring spree ensures that Nunn finishes the regular season as the competition’s leading scorer, with his average of 21.1 points eclipsing FC Bayern Munich’s Carsen Edwards with 20.5 points per night.
Nunn, though, preferred to focus on his distribution as he reflected: "What I’m most proud of is the 10 assists. I’m just playmaking, making great reads. My teammates want me to do that. They trust me with the ball, and I’m going to keep believing."
And with Nunn in this kind of form, despite the defensive concerns of their coach, Panathinaikos fans are surely also still believing in back-to-back title glory.