Ergin Ataman and Kenneth Faried spoke to the journalists on behalf of Panathinaikos BC AKTOR, ahead of tomorrow’s matchup against Anadolu Efes Istanbul (17/4, 21:15).

In his statement, the coach noted: “We will play the last game of the regular season. We cannot do anything about the other games. The goal is tomorrow to play good basketball and to win. They are out of the Playoffs, but they won their last two games. For us, it is not time to put pressure on ourselves, we are a good team, we must play offensively, play good basketball. We must play like we did against FC Barcelona. Solid defense and in offense to share the ball. Valencia Basket played different, it is not easy to play against them. We must forget that and remember how we played against FC Barcelona. We must focus 100% on the game we had against Barcelona.

I hope so (that we will not have absences), because during the season sometimes on game day, doctors or players said they were not ready to play, because they were sick or injured. But now we had some meetings, that it is not time for excuses, it is time to be ready to play. We have a great team, we must focus on the final part of the season. It does not matter if you finish in the Playoffs or in the Play-In, we must play basketball as Panathinaikos, together with all our fans who have a great contribution. This will be the ‘key’ for the team to reach its big goals.”

From his side, Kenneth Faried said: “We must do our job, win the game tomorrow and focus on what we can control. As long as I play, I try to do the best I can to help my team win. We managed to handle FC Barcelona on their home court, but Valencia Basket handled us on theirs. 1-1 in a tough environment. We must stay focused and, as I said, control what we can control. That is tomorrow—winning the game we need.”