Mateusz Ponitka, Panathinaikos: 'That’s how we want to play'

Christos Serelis, Panathinaikos Athens head coach
“[At halftime] I told them that we had to play defense. [In the first half] we didn’t play defense, we didn’t play aggressive. Tactically maybe, we did some good things, but if you’re not playing with your body and your hands, and playing with the mind of the opponent, you cannot win the game. But for the last 18 minutes, we played very good defense. We are working, we are a team and we have to understand that the team wins, not individuals.
“I want to congratulate my players because they played very hard in the second half. They played the way we want to play, and the way we asked from them since the first day I came here. We started with bad defense and bad decisions on offense. We discussed it in the locker room and said we had to fight and win the game with our defense. We allowed only 24 points in the second half and that’s why we won the game, a win that in the end I think we deserved.”
Dusko Ivanovic, Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade head coach
“A simple one: we stopped playing basketball.
“After five minutes in the third quarter, I don’t understand it but we stopped playing on defense, we lost confidence on offense, and Panathinaikos played more aggressive than we did in the last quarter. [Nemanja] Nedovic had a problem in the second half and couldn’t play more.”
Georgios Papagiannis, Panathinaikos Athens center
“We played really good. Zvezda has a great offensive game and they’re playing tough on defense since Coach Ivanovic came. It’s a hard team, but we had to do the best we could on defense. They have three guards [Facu Campazzo, Luca Vildoza and Nemanja Nedovic] who can really handle the ball, but we did the best we can. We had some really good execution on offense and we got a good win. It’s been a long time [since I had a big game], I’m aware of it, but since the beginning of the game I said I should give 100% of my energy today. Not just me, all the players in the locker room did the same thing.”
Mateusz Ponitka, Panathinaikos Athens forward
“That was a team effort, eventually. We started really bad; we couldn’t make shots. We had open shots in the first half, we created good open spots. But sometimes it’s like this, you start sloppy and you have to come back in the second half. We played as a team. When we play smart, share the ball and play together, good things are happening the whole season. That’s another point for us to focus on, that’s how we want to play.”