With confidence high after Wednesday's highly encouraging thumping win over Efes, Andrea Trinchieri's Zalgiris (9-15) will look to underline its improvement by testing the road credentials of high-flying Panathinaikos (15-9).
Ergin Ataman, Panathinaikos: 'It's obvious that defense will be the key'
Seasons
3 Minutė skaityti
Regular Season
Round 25 of 34
Regular Season
Zalgiris KaunasZAL
8068
Panathinaikos AKTOR AthensPAO
Overview
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Laurynas Birutis continued to benefit from the arrival of Trinchieri by combining 18 points and 8 rebounds on Wednesday, and he'll go up against an in-form Mathias Lessort, whose 12 points and 7 boards helped bury Milan on Wednesday. This season's first meeting between the teams was a tight affair, edged 73-71 by the Greek team on the back of 19 points from Dinos Mitoglou.
Ergin Ataman, Panathinaikos head coach
"Zalgiris played an excellent game against Efes. They won and scored 96 points, it's obvious that defense will be the key. At home they play aggressive and with fast transitions. We have to control the game, turnovers will be the key, especially in such a hot atmosphere as the one we will find in Kaunas. We are all missing 10 games in the season. We are taking it stp by step. Every win will be important, first to secure the playoffs and later to try to secure one of the top spots."
Luca Vildoza, Panathinaikos player
"They are playing really good. They beat Efes by 26, they have great fans and a great atmosphere. They also have a new coach and we have to be aware of that. It's a EuroLeague game on the road in a double-week, so it's going to be tough. We have to match their intensity. We have to keep doing what we have been doing in the last games."