Ataman: ”There were two different matches on the court...”

Anadolu Efes lost 77-83 to AX Armani Exchange Milan in the 32nd week of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague, and head coach Ergin Ataman shared his thoughts after the match as follows:

"There were two different games. We played great in the first half. We did very well on the defensive and offensive sides of the game. We played our own game and scored points in the transition. We scored 51 points in the first half with a great atmosphere. I didn't think that the scenario would be reversed at halftime either, but we started so bad to the third quarter. We couldn't attack Milan's switch defense, we missed too many free shots. We missed 9 foul shots. We couldn't defend Hall, Shields, and Rodriguez one on one. We couldn't prevent them from scoring inside. We have to admit that it was a tough game. Milan played very well in the second half, we panicked and we lost. Mathematically we have a chance to go to the top 4. But Olympiacos should lose their all 3 games and we have to win ours. That way the gap can be closed. We caught an advantage after Olympiacos' loss to Monaco. Now that difference is two again. Sometimes things don’t go as we thought. It has become very difficult. It was over 50 percent then, now it's down to less than 10 percent."

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  • Ergin Ataman