After a break for national cups and international windows, Euroleague teams return to action, with only eight games remaining in the regular season. Every match is crucial.

Panathinaikos resumes play with an away game against Villeurbanne, where Tibor Pleiß will make his debut. Ataman shared his thoughts:

On the game against Villeurbanne and the goals for Panathinaikos for the rest of the season: “We are starting the final stretch of Euroleague after a two-week break. We will play eight games, four at home and four away. The truth is, we need to win at least five games to secure our spot in the top four. With fewer than five, it will be very difficult. Every team has different goals. Villeurbanne might be aiming to make the playoffs, but this is a very important game for us. We beat them by a large margin at OAKA, but Villeurbanne plays much better at home. They recently beat Barcelona at home, scoring 100 points, so for us, it will be crucial to play defense, control the game, and this is an important match.”

On why Panathinaikos has a different performance at home and on the road: “Many teams have this issue this season. I don’t know the reason, but not just us—many teams have a home-court advantage. I hope that in the final part of the season, everyone will be more focused, because every game will be very important for all teams, so whether you’re playing at home or away, basketball should be the same. The criteria should be the same. We’ll try to improve our road game, but sometimes how we feel isn’t enough because basketball is for all teams, so we’ll see what happens.”

On what Tibor Pleiß  will bring to the team: “Experience. He’s a player who knows my system, and as I said yesterday in practice, we have only one player who has more titles than Tibor Pleiß —Kostas Sloukas. Tibor has had great success in Euroleague with me, and he was very good in practice. We know the problem this season has been bad luck at the center position, and we don’t know exactly when Yurtseven will be 100% ready or when Mathias Lessort will return. So, we brought Plais in as insurance. I don’t know how many minutes he will play right away, but I’m sure that even if he plays fewer minutes, he can bring experience to the team.”

On Gabriel and his chances of playing: “Last week, we had a bit of a panic over Gabriel’s condition because he had a knee issue, and then he went to the hospital because he was very sick. Yesterday, he had a great practice. He participated in the entire session and said he felt good. I hope that before practice, I won’t be visited by the doctors.”