Ataman: “We Are Better Than Last Year…”

Hosting the CSKA Moscow team in the 28th-week match of Turkish Airlines Euroleague, Anadolu Efes won the game 100-70 with a superior game and finishes the double-week with double victories, Anadolu Efes head coach Ergin Ataman states his thoughts post-game:

"We’ve played a perfect game once again. We’re playing very well for the last 3-4 matches. Everyone is asking if we’re playing like last year or not. I can say that we are better than last year at the moment. About the match, we started off perfectly. We’ve found 30 points difference within 15 minutes. Then, we’ve faced the biggest challenges of Euroleague; winning against CSKA with a 35-point difference. Because we’ve lost in Moscow with a major point difference while we were lacking and had many issues. We didn’t give up today. It was a test for us to find a 35-36 points difference, and not to give up. Because there are many matches in Euroleague in which the teams come back from 20-25 points differences. We’ve spoken about this with our players and played. All my players played a perfect basketball, perfectly defended, shared the ball on the offensive game, and I believe we’ve shown an amazing character tonight. We were in a bad shape when we lost against them 3 months ago in Moscow, but I’ve seen what my players were thinking in the 2-3 hour-long meeting we’ve done after the match. They’ve shown this character tonight. Our goals are important for our future in this season’s Euroleague. Closing the 35-point difference wasn’t important numerically. The importance was to show that character. There aren’t many teams that can do that in Euroleague. I’ve never seen any teams throughout my Euroleague career do this against CSKA Moscow. It was important not to stop after that point difference. That was the reason we’ve headed into this challenge. We’ve continued with that until the last 30 seconds. We started the match so determined, so enthusiastic, so hard that CSKA Moscow could not lift their heads this evening."

Etiketler:
  • CSKA Moskova
  • Ergin Ataman