Priftis: “Jovic will need gradual reintegration due to inaction”

Panathinaikos OPAP is back in action after nearly three weeks due to the coronavirus cases that hit it during the holidays. The Greens will welcome CSKA Moscow on Wednesday, December 12th at 9:00 p.m. (Novasports Prime, Match Center on Sportish), with Dimitris Priftis being called on to find the balance and present a team on the OAKA floor that will compete with the Victory will fight.

On the eve of the game with the Russian team, Klee’s coach referred to the objective difficulties of recent weeks, but also to the transfer of Stefan Jovic, who is due to arrive in Greece in a few days.

In detail he said:

For suffering from the coronavirus in the past few weeks: “I wish everyone a happy new year, that everyone is healthy. It’s been a “test” these twenty days since the last game we played with Lavrio. I would describe it as very poor in terms of training at this time. Several players have gone missing and obviously reintegration is not easy after a long period of inactivity. We’re talking about some kids who have one and a half – two training sessions for the upcoming official games in a difficult week.

Obviously it’s difficult for both us and the players. Especially for them, because they have to meet the fitness requirements. As for our work, some children, four or five, have exercised well, others have been inactive. When they’re all out in the field together, a middle ground has to be struck to get a few things done. It’s not easy, but multiple teams suffer from the same condition“.

For CSKA Moscow: “It has size, it has physicality, it has a fairly strong element of the low-level play, it reads very well. It obviously has chemistry because it’s a team that has been almost the same for the past few years. The game will be very difficult“.

For Stefan Jovic: “After a long period of inactivity, it is the rhythm of the race. Gradual reintegration is clearly required. Let’s get to him first to see what state he will be in for the first few days and how he will react and gradually escalating to get into training and games. We’ll see it day by day. Obviously, if he’s in good shape and in good physical shape, he’s a very good player, with a lot of experience and experience. Can set the game. He’s a very good player between the bench and the rest of the team, this often used connection is ideal. In good condition and at the right pace, of course“.

Kaselakis: “Suspicious and focused”

For his part, Leonidas Kaselakis stated:

How Panathinaikos OPAP will be after the coronavirus“It’s definitely a question mark for us how we’ll do after all this, but I think it’s a time of pandemic that affects more or less all teams. Even the teams that don’t have coronavirus don’t play because they do Our part that we have to do to know the objective difficulties is to get it out of our mind, to prepare with the data we have, and to present the best possible person against a team thirsting for victories, because “The Game” has a goal motivation. We have to be very suspicious and focused throughout the game. “

About whether they’ll think about what happened to the coronavirus before“You are certainly not going to be as active as you should be and you are going to give yourself an excuse if you could have, if you didn’t have it in your head. So it all starts in your head. We have to get rid of it and be like that much more focused as possible so that we can get the necessary intensity in a EuroLeague game “.

What Panathinaikos OPAP has to watch out for against CSKA Moscow: “To be tougher. CSKA is great and it doesn’t just depend on how big it is, but it takes advantage of it, everyone goes for an offensive rebound. So the key number 1 will be to control our defensive rebounds with that It can also beat us. Also in the open field, because if a team attacks a lot in the offensive rebound, it automatically leaves a gap in the transition. So we have to be very careful not to counter our own weapon, but to be productive in the Attack. What we have to do is not give them a chance to escape, restrict their possessions as much as possible. “

To the duel with Will Claiborne“He’s a player who has made a difference in CSKA games for the last two years. I think the most important thing when you face such players is not not not to score because that doesn’t happen, but to get their percentage And that is something that “at that moment will automatically spoil the chemistry of the team. Will Claiborne is certainly the best CSKA player and one of the best in the EuroLeague, but we have to work as a team in defense and attack. “