Coach Serelis came up short in his Panathinaikos debut

Changing the head coach has failed to bear fruit instantly for Panathinaikos Athens, with Christos Serelis tasting defeat in his EuroLeague debut after taking over from Dejan Radonjic last week.
Radonjic parted ways with the club after a crushing 81-65 defeat to archrivals Olympiacos Piraeus in the Greek Cup semifinal, which came on the back of some narrow losses in the EuroLeague where the Greens have failed to live up to their fans’ expectations.
Panathinaikos, which has now lost four in a row in Europe’s premier club competition, has relied heavily on the trio of Derrick Williams, Dwayne Bacon and Paris Lee, with the supporting cast not delivering enought, except perhaps for big man Arturas Gudaitis, who missed the game in Milan through injury.
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Of just as much concern is the apparent lack of energy, with Panathinaikos looking like a team short of confidence when the chips are down. Serelis made it clear his priority was to root out apathy if the former EuroLeague champion is to return to winning ways.
"Panathinaikos is a winning team, we refuse to lose, so the mentality has to be to win every game. The mentality is the most important thing for my team," Serelis told reporters at the post-game press conference. "We asked the players to react because we are not in a good situation the last two months. It’s a new beginning for us and we have to start winning games."
A largely static offense that doesn’t move the ball quickly enough has been the team’s glaring problem and Serelis concurred this is where immediate improvement was needed, with Panathinaikos among the worst offensive teams in the competition.
"I want more from my team. I asked for more than 20 assists per game, so offensively our biggest problem is that we are unable to find enough open looks," he said. "We have to find the extra pass and that’s one thing we have to work on, the other is that we have to work on a lot of things defensively."
With Bacon again struggling from long range - he only made 1 of 7 three-pointers against Milan, Derrick Williams carried Panahtinaikos's effort but he looked devoid of energy in the second half, having finished on 21 points after netting 17 in the first half. Still, he drew praise from Serelis.
"Derrick played very well today, he helped us a lot in both positions, 4 and 5. I tried to talk to all the players since I got here two days ago and he realized that he has to step up and help the team because he is one of the best players in his position in Europe."