Panathinaikos’ team departs tomorrow afternoon for Abu Dhabi and the Euroleague Final Four, where they will defend the title won a year ago in Berlin. One of the big questions in the European champions’ camp is about Matías Lesor.

The French center, after his shocking injury in the game against Baskonia, is now counting down to his return to action. Ergin Ataman, in his closing remarks on Skweek, emphasized that he will travel normally to Abu Dhabi and will compete.

«If Matías also joins the team and plays, I believe our team will have the same chemistry as last year, and the semifinal with Fenerbahçe will be a great battle,» said Ataman initially (at 3′ of the following video). However, in his last response, he was definitive.

«Will Matías be with you?» he was asked (at 4’20” of the video), and he replied: «Yes, Matías will play with us.» When the journalist pressed and asked if Lesor will actually participate, he emphasized: «He will play, why not?»

Beyond that, the experienced coach spoke about the matchups with Turkish teams that preceded this one and about the upcoming challenge…

«Anadolu Efes is a big club, and they reached the playoffs after an incredible last part of the regular season with eight consecutive wins. Many of their players have experience from winning the EuroLeague. It was very, very difficult for us, mentally also, it wasn’t easy.
I know all the people at Efes. We are like a family with the president — the family of the president. All my best friends still work there. My staff works there.
There was a lot of pressure, and I closed my Turkish phone for two weeks because I couldn’t answer all the Turkish journalists,» Ataman said, continuing:

«We have two players from the Turkish national team in our squad. For them, it’s also not easy because people believe that when they play against Turkish teams, they have more motivation to win, but that’s not true. It was a very tough series, but… we managed to win in Istanbul, and then we kept our home court in the fifth game, in an amazing atmosphere.»

Regarding the semifinal against Fenerbahçe, Ataman praised his team’s coach, Jasikevičius:

«They have a very good coach with experience and very good players, especially after the addition of veteran player Eric McCollum. They started playing much better, especially offensively, while the barometer player is Nigel Hayes-Davis. I also have great respect for Gündoğdu’s game,» he said, and then highlighted:

«We beat them twice in the regular season. We will fight for victory and to reach the final. Fenerbahçe had a great season. They finished second in the regular season, but we were third with one less win.
We beat them twice in the regular season — in Istanbul and Athens. It will definitely be a tough game for both teams.»