This is what the protagonists had to say after the Round 34 showdown between Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and Panathinaikos OPAP Athens.
Post-game quotes: Fenerbahce vs. Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens head coach Dimitris Priftis
"It's good that we finished with a win, and especially away for our home court. Congrats to the guys for today's win. It was very special circumstances because, as you saw, we had no guards. Unfortunately, we are missing [Nemanja] Nedovic. [Howard] Sant-Roos, something happened in the first four or five minutes, so we had to play with a special lineup. So congrats to the guys, and we continue now with the domestic league."
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul head coach Sasha Djordjevic
"Tough game, tough loss. I think we played our hearts out, but we were short of breath and due to that we didn't finish the game in the right way. We had some easy turnovers and some unforced errors, as I like to call them, and some open shots that we didn't make. On the other side, they made the shots that were coming up and the last shot was the shot we started this year with, and we are finishing it with this kind of loss. It hurts, but on our [bench] we had like 50 points in our [injured] starters [Marko] Guduric, [Nando] De Colo and [Devin Booker], and it's hard to invent offensively something against a very physical team like Panathinaikos, who took advantage of their size. I don't think we played smart enough at the finish. It would have been a great reward for all of our players to have won the game. We gave our heart out, but as I said, we didn't finish it in a smart way."
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Panathinaikos OPAP Athens center Georgios Papagiannis
"It was our last game and I wanted to give maximum effort today. Unfortunately, we are not going to continue. That was for us the end of the EuroLeague. But I am really happy that we actually got the win today, because we have a really important game on Monday in the domestic league. And actually I would like us to keep the aggressiveness we had in the second half for the upcoming game. Daryl [Macon] made a really great shot. He really made an important shot and we won the game."
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens guard Daryl Macon
"One thing about me, I'm going to keep shooting. And my teammates trust me enough to help me get shots up and to help me find open looks. I didn't shoot the ball well [tonight] but they trusted me that last possession to bring the game home, and I really appreciate those guys. I really do. It means a lot. We had a lot of ups and downs this season just dealing with everything: injuries, sickness, just finding the rhythm and playing with each other. This game was big for us. We all stayed together despite missing two players. Everyone stepped up tonight. We all trusted each other. We trusted the coaching staff with their tactics, their game plan. This was a big game for us because we have a big [domestic] game on Monday and we needed this confidence going into that one."