By Antonis Stroggylakis / [email protected]
ABU DHABI – Following a losing effort to Fenerbahce Beko, Panathinaikos Aktor settles in the third-place game of the Final Four of the 2024-25 edition of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
“First of all, I would like to congratulate Fenerbahce, because tonight they deserved to win,” head coach Ergin Ataman opened a postgame press conference, “They played much better than us, especially defensively.”
“We didn’t find the solutions on the switching, man-to-man. We made a lot of turnovers. In the second half, we tried to come back in the game, use Mathias [Lessort] to to find solutions in the inside game, but we lost Kendrick Nunn with a fifth foul,” he added, referring to the return of Mathias Lessort and the ejection of leading star Kendrick Nunn early in the fourth quarter, “And we didn’t use well our chances.”
“Especially Errick McCollum and Devon Hall, they had a great game, offensively. They beat our perimeter players one-on-one,” he concluded a recap of the game in Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena on Friday, “And we lost the game.”
The top player of last year’s Semifinal clash between the Greens and Fener, Mathias Lessort, recovered from injury and played his first game since December 19, checking in with 2:58 left in the first quarter. He had seven points in 14 minutes.
“We needed inside score. I put Mathias, despite him not playing for the last five months. We used him well. I think every day he will be better, especially in the Greek League Finals,” Ataman projected improved showings for the 29-year-old Lessort in a championship series against Olympiacos in the Stoiximan GBL Playoffs.