Check out what the coaches and players are saying ahead of Round 26 of the 2024-25 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season.
Pregame quotes hub: 'Mike James will certainly be one of our main focuses'
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Friday, February 7
AS Monaco vs. Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade (19:00 CET)
Vassilis Spanoulis, AS Monaco head coach
"The players showed a lot of character against Baskonia. That's bound to come in handy before we play another big game against Partizan. We know they're a team fighting for the playoffs, a very good team coached by a very good coach. Our aim will be to keep up the good momentum we've built up so far."
Zeljko Obradovic, Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade head coach
"They are well known for their individual and team qualities. The difference compared to the first game is that some new players have returned from injuries, while others are now injured. What’s important is that Mike James remains the team’s leader – he has surpassed 5,000 points and is now the all-time leading scorer in EuroLeague history. Besides James, they have quality players in all positions. [Matthew] Strazel and [Nick] Calathes bring fresh energy to the team and are capable of playing extremely aggressive defense. Additionally, they rotate three big men and have individual players with outstanding physical attributes. Overall, they are an incredible team in terms of their tempo and rebounding game. These are the aspects we need to pay attention to."
Sterling Brown, Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade guard
"I expect the same outcome as in the last game. We will go out and do our best to win. Mike James is the leader of the team — he gets them going, makes big plays, and hits key shots. Many players rely on his energy, so he will certainly be one of our main focuses."
Virtus Segafredo Bologna vs. Paris Basketball (20:30 CET)
Dusko Ivanovic, Virtus Segafredo Bologna head coach
"Paris is a team that is playing really well this season, they are a breath of fresh air in European basketball. It's really a team, every player is having fun and feeling part of the game, playing fast, very good in 'intensity and offensive rebounds, excellent in transitions and with a good coach. We have a very difficult game ahead of us."
Andrejs Grazulis, Virtus Segafredo Bologna forward
"Playing a EuroLeague back-to-back is never easy because it's two close games in a short time and you have to be good at resetting right away. Paris is a talented team that is doing well this season, we will have to be solid from the start and for the whole 40', reducing turnovers and mistakes on defense."
FC Barcelona vs. Olympiacos Piraeus (20:30 CET)
Joan Penarroya, FC Barcelona head coach
"Olympiacos is surely the most dominant team, in the best shape, in the current season. It will be a really difficult game, it couldn't be any other way when you face Olympiacos. They are a really solid team with very important players and a really experienced coach, that know each other very well. They are showing in such a competitive EuroLeague season that they are surely the team whose playing level is a bit ahead of everyone else right now. It is a different game against an opponent that know how to play in many different ways and punished any weaknesses you have, no matter what it is, during the game. We have to make sure that our bad moments are short-timed because if not, they will hold on to those moments to break the game. We have to be solid at both ends, knowing they are a talented opponent and at some point they will have good moments and make the most out of that. We will look for a win in a tough game. We play at Palau and that will have us extra strength. We know we have to compete hard in order to win."
Kevin Punter, FC Barcelona guard
"It feels good. I have been here for about six months now and it's been really, really well. I like it here a lot. We have good chemistry, so I can't complain. Everything has been great. It's going to be a tough game. Obviously, they are first in the EuroLeague. I know a lot of guys on that team, so it's going to be an interesting game tomorrow, but it's going to be a good one. This is what we signed up for. We will be ready to go and try to get another win."
Georgios Bartzokas, Olympiacos Piraeus head coach
"In the EuroLeague there is a certain intensity that the games are played. But there are some teams who play with more possessions, like Paris and Barcelona. Both play in high tempo. It’s obvious that Barcelona feels comfortable when the game is high scoring because they have a very talented and quality roster. We must play very well on defense like we did against Paris and stay focused on our game plan."
Moustapha Fall, Olympiacos Piraeus center
"We have to play with the same intensity we played against Paris. The tough schedule is not an excuse, all teams are facing difficulties. We have to play even better than we did against Paris in order to get the win."
Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz vs. Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv (20:30 CET)
John DiBartolomeo, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv guard
"A lot of it is focusing on ourselves. We want to play a better game than we did [on Wednesday], of course, to get our confidence back and some momentum going into a really important game [on Friday] and a really important game next week. We need to focus on what we need to improve on, specifically on the defensive end – they have a lot of weapons offensively. We need to slow them down. The big thing for me is we need to play well together, we need to support each other, we need to play hard. Things that we can control that will carry us going forward."
Thursday, February 6
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul vs. Real Madrid (18:30 CET)
Saras Jasikevicius, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul head coach
"Real Madrid is one of the most experienced teams. After a tough loss at Panathinaikos, we need to concentrate mainly on ourselves to play better basketball, but first of all to share the ball much better that we were not that good in Athens. Madrid presents difficulties with very good guards and [Walter] Tavares on the inside."
Khem Birch, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul center
"It’s going to be a tough game because both teams are coming from a loss. So we just have to focus. To our fans, come and be loud because we are going to need it tomorrow."
Chus Mateo, Real Madrid head coach
"Fenerbahçe is shooting very well from three-point range and playing great on defense, forcing a lot of turnovers, so we have to try to take good shots and try not to lose balls, as well as to stay competitive during the 40 minutes of the game."
Alberto Abalde, Real Madrid forward
"It's going to be a very demanding game and we have to think about preparing well for the game against a complicated team, because of the players they have and their form this season. They are a very consistent team, with a lot of rotation, structured on defense and do not let you play what you want, so we have to be solid at the back and play with rhythm, because in static they are a very difficult team to beat."
Zalgiris Kaunas vs. EA7 Emporio Armani Milan (19:00 CET)
Ettore Messina, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan head coach
"Zalgiris is a team capable to express tremendous physicality, with guards who can produce a lot offensively and big men who set screens and take position inside with a lot of energy. Attacking well their defensive pressure and try to win the rebounding battle will be the first order of things to focus on."
ALBA Berlin vs. Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade (19:00 CET)
Israel Gonzalez, ALBA Berlin head coach
"Red Star has a very deep roster and has made another top-class addition with John Brown. Our opponents are in a good momentum right now: They've won a lot of games recently and also won the derby against Partizan. The versatility and depth of the team makes it incredibly difficult to prepare for Red Star. They are physical, can play with big line-ups and switch a lot. They also have a lot of good guards who can attack one-on-one. We're very happy to welcome Rokas Giedraitis, an ex-Albatross, back to Berlin on Thursday."
Yanni Wetzell, ALBA Berlin forward
"After the disappointing game against Zalgiris, we have the chance to make amends. We want to show better basketball again against Red Star in front of our fans. However, our opponent has played strongly recently and is a real playoff contender. That should be enough fuel to motivate us as a team to play hard and fight in a great environment on Thursday."
Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens vs. Anadolu Efes Istanbul (20:15 CET)
Ergin Ataman, Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens head coach
"Every game in the EuroLeague is difficult, whether you play on your home court or you play on the road. And now, in our situation, we're having difficulty with our big man rotation [due to injuries], so sometimes we have problems because all our scoring is coming from the perimeter players. We had a lot of chances to break the game open, but Fenerbahce had very good momentum and they came here with six victories in a row. We risked the game in the last 30 seconds, but we found a way to win on a night that saw some strange basketball. It was a very important victory for the standings situation; we beat Fenerbahce twice, we already won two times against Bayern, so it is very good for us."
Konstantinos Mitoglou, Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens forward
"At this moment, this is the roster we have. We are professionals, and we will give 100% of our abilities. We will do whatever it takes for Panathinaikos to win. The team comes above everything else, so we will do everything in our power to secure victory in this game. It does not matter who the opponent is—every time we step on the court, our goal is clear: to play with intensity and win."
Luca Banchi, Anadolu Efes Istanbul head coach
"Double-game weeks always offer many reasons to analyze the pregame connected with the capacity to rebuild energy, focus very short time to prepare games plus travel that, of course takes time from our recovery and our preparation plus meeting the defending champions after playing yesterday against last season’s finalist. This time, it's a matter to meet the defending champion that they had a very incredible win, just a few hours ago against Fenerbahçe Beko. We will find a team very motivated to defend their court. We would like to show on the court that we are into a process to improve our consistency in such difficult games. One more time not having our captain limits our possible rotation, but one more time we will ask the team to respond collectively, to have from everybody something more, something extra in terms of focus, in terms of effort, in terms of responsibilities, otherwise games like Real Madrid are impossible to win. Let's approach this game with confidence, but also with proper aggressiveness. Because we know that Panathinaikos will try from the very beginning to impose their rhythm and we want to respond in an appropriate way."
Erkan Yilmaz, Anadolu Efes Istanbul forward
"We started the double-game week well and now we want to get the second victory. We know that the Panathinaikos game on the road is tough, but if we can perform the same toughness, concentration and effort we applied in defense in the Real Madrid game and stick to our game plan for 40 minutes, we can win. We want to get one more victory in this double-game week."
FC Bayern Munich vs. LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (20:30 CET)
Gordie Herbert, FC Bayern Munich head coach
"This is the best possible news we could have received (about Devin Booker not having a serious knee injury). We are all very relieved and will try to stick together as well as we did against Milan during Devin's absence. We discussed in the locker room before the Milan game that we would give 100% in this game, despite the double week. We’ll approach Villeurbanne the same way. We know they’ve significantly improved in the last few weeks after a rough start to the season. But we are playing at home in front of our fans, and we want to use that advantage."
