This is what the protagonists had to say after the Round 29 showdown between AS Monaco and Anadolu Efes Istanbul.
Post-game quotes: Monaco vs. Efes
Sasa Obradovic, head coach, AS Monaco:
“If somebody told me before the game that we will be attacking the 21-point loss from Istanbul I would have never believed it. But we did a great job - maybe the best game we played so far. I’m happy for the guys, happy for these people. Let’s go, we’re still dreaming of the top eight. This win will help us a lot.
“We were really dominating from the first minute until the end. It was a great game by everybody. The togetherness, even now, is improving each day. You could see it in this game. I hope first of all that we can stay healthy and continue with the same attitude and have that for every game. It’s not easy but we are always finding the right chemistry to win the games.”
Ergin Ataman, head coach, Anadolu Efes Istanbul:
“Congratulations to them. They played an excellent game. We missed the game, so congratulations to Monaco. They really played very strong, very aggressive. And physically they were also strong. They scored 42 points in one-on-one isolation with Mike James, [Dwayne] Bacon and [Alpha] Diallo. They scored 21 points after offensive rebounds. And we could never find our rhythm to play our basketball at any time in the game.
"Shane Larkin was sick before the game - the last two days. We tried to keep him on the court, but he told us at halftime that he doesn’t have the energy. In the second half, we tried to check his situation again but today he was completely out. We couldn’t find our game. Congratulations to them - we lost the game and also the point difference.”
Related Videos
Alpha Diallo, forward, AS Monaco:
“We came in with a good game plan. We played hard and aggressive for 40 minutes and that got the job done.”
Mike James, guard, AS Monaco:
“Normally if we lost by a lot I would look up, just to know in my head [what was the point difference]. I didn’t even think … it felt like we got beat by 40 the first time. So I didn’t even know the point difference until like 3 minutes left. We played good today. Just happy to get a win. We basically have an off week from the EuroLeague next week. Just stay ready and fight for the playoffs.”