Disappointed Ergin Ataman: 'We're not playing good basketball' / News - Basketnews.com

Ergin Ataman was not happy that his team lost the fourth quarter decisively. The specialist thinks the players have to study themselves because they didn't respond to depleted Valencia's aggressiveness.

Credit: REUTERS-Scanpix Credit REUTERS-Scanpix

Valencia Basket had lost Jasiel Rivero and Jared Harper due to injuries. Just before the match, it was revealed that Chris Jones would not be able to help the team as well. Nevertheless, the Spanish team comfortably defeated Anadolu Efes Istanbul at home.

Player of the Game EFF 21 Josep Puerto Points 15 Accuracy 5-6 Rebounds 7 Assists 0

Talking after the match, the Turkish team's head coach Ergin Ataman was disappointed with his players' reaction to what the opposing team did.

"We controlled the game until the last quarter but then we gave up to their aggressiveness. It's a big loss for us, it's a big win for them," Ataman told during the post-game press conference.

Asked whether the players were relaxed after finding out about Valencia's injuries, Ataman denied it.

"We found out about Chris Jones' injury on the court, nobody knew about it on our team. For us, it was a very important game because we lost against Valencia at home," he explained.

"I don't think we were relaxed, we didn't answer to the aggressiveness and the great character that Valencia put on the court. We completely lost control during the last quarter. It's not about being relaxed, there's nothing to be relaxed about," Ataman said.

Even though Shane Larkin came back to the rotation, Efes managed to score just 71 points. The Turkish team lost the fourth quarter by 14 points - 15 to 29.

"The problem is that during this period - the last two, three games - we're not playing good basketball. I hope that will change because we had this problem at the beginning of the season, then we solved it. We lost the last three road games against Maccabi, Partizan, and now Valencia in the same way, we lose every game in the last 5 minutes in the last quarter. I think we must study ourselves," Ataman concluded.

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