Two teams looking to return to winning ways meet in Istanbul as Efes (5-6) welcomes Panathinaikos (6-5). All eyes will be on Greens boss Ergin Ataman as he returns for the first time to the club that he turned into back-to-back EuroLeague champions.
Erdem Can, Efes: 'We will prepare for this game in the best way possible'
Seasons
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 12 of 34
Group Regular Season
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On the court, Panathinaikos will look for defensive ace Jerian Grant, who ranks second in the league with 2.1 steals per game, to disrupt the rhythm of Efes’s prolific backcourt scorers. That includes Rodrigue Beaubois, who has averaged 10.9 points per game and netted at least one triple for six games straight. The battle in the paint will feature Mike Daum, who made a solid Efes debut in last week’s defeat to Zvezda with 10 points, going up against Mathias Lessort, the league’s leading offensive rebounder with 2.8 per game.
Erdem Can, Efes head coach
"The power of Panathinaikos AKTOR is obvious. A difficult double-game week awaits us. As known, we have been struggling with injuries for a time. Our injured players Rodrigue Beaubois and Ante Zizic will not be with us for 3 weeks each, Will Clyburn 6 weeks, Derek Willis 7 weeks, and Tibor Pleiss and Elijah Bryant will not be with us for at least 10 days. Despite everything, we will prepare for this game in the best way possible."
Ergin Ataman, Panathinaikos head coach
"Of course, I have great memories with Efes, with everybody - staff, players, the president, the fans... But things have changed. This is the life of a professional. Now it's time to go there and to try to win this game with Panathinaikos. For me it will be an emotional time to return there after the most successful period in my career and Efes's history. It will be all good. Every coach has their system, Coach Erdem changed the system, but their key players are the same - Larkin remains the key player. I heard about injury situations in Efes and I don't know what players will be on the court. I just know that we have been missing Hernangomez and Papapetrou for a month and we have tried to manage that situation."
Mike Daum, Efes player
"We have a very tough game in front of us. But a very exciting one in front of a soldout home crowd. I’m very excited to play for the first time in front of amazing fans. In order to win the game we have to stick together and play hard the whole game."
Marius Grigonis, Panathinaikos player
"To be honest, every road game is difficult and every team in the EuroLeague is competitive, so it's not that special that we face such a strong team as Efes on the road. It sounds like they have problems, but every team have their own problems. We will go there to try to win the game. I have seen Efes games and they seem to have a few problems, but their core key players are the same, especially Larkin. We will see and try to figure out how to win the game."