Priftis on PAO's first home loss: 'Turnovers and bad percentages cost us the game' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Sputnik – Scanpix Credit Sputnik – Scanpix

Following Panathinaikos's first home defeat of the season, to ASVEL Villeurbanne (70-84) at OAKA, the Greens' coach Dimitris Priftis pointed out that the game was decided by his team's lack of defensive aggressiveness, the large number of turnovers and the hosts' low three-point percentage (26,3%).

Player of the Game EFF 37 Elie Okobo Points 35 Accuracy 13-19 Rebounds 4 Assists 2

At the post-game press conference, the coach of Panathinaikos singled out the reasons for his team's demise in a competitive game that was decided in the last three minutes, mostly by Elie Okobo.

"It was a tough game. We made our effort. Our main problems were defensive, guarding Okobo one-on-one. He had a great night and made almost every shot he took, as did the entire ASVEL team in the crucial moments.

On the other hand, we shot poorly and that cost us. There were shots we had to make and we didn't, we had a very low three-point percentage. We also made mistakes that gave them easy points.

Of course, congratulations to ASVEL for playing firmly, decisively and consistently. Their results to this day were not accidental," the Greek coach stated in his opening remarks. When asked about Panathinaikos's 19 turnovers and the element that puzzled him the most, Priftis replied:

"Some offensive fouls, like 3 or 4, that the refs called against us were exaggerated. The game had a lot of contact. We were very bad and passive at that part, we didn't respond as we should have.

Also, in the first half, we didn't handle our fouls properly at some moments. We made our effort, the guys tried. As I said last time out, some things go at their own pace, not the one we would like. We must be patient," Priftis repeated once more.

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