Marius Grigonis on Sportish: “Monaco did everything so that we win, that’s how you build character”

Marius Grigonis made an impressive buzzer like a machine god and completed Panathinaikos AKTOR’s big surprise against Monaco (90-91) in the best possible way. The Lithuanian guard/forward helped the Greens to their third road win of the season and stole the show.

As expected, after this stressful encounter ended, everyone wanted to talk to him. Sportish was there and got a few words from the star of the evening, who didn’t want to be impressed by the result, knowing full well that the season still has a long way to go and the Clover Leafs have to continue to work hard and concentrate.

How does it feel to be the last man standing?

“It’s just a game. Of course I’m happy too. I’m glad I somehow got the ball into my hands at the last second. We’ll celebrate a little bit, but at the end of the day it’s just a regular season game.”

The paradox is that you haven’t been training normally lately, you have some Achilles tendon problems, but in the last game (against Villeurbanne) and in this game you still performed very well. How you do that?

“Yes, it will be treated in the time I need. Luckily, it’s not an injury that you can’t control. I was missing for a while and I’m fine now.”

It was a surprising away win. So far they have only beaten Alba and Villeurbanne, who are at the bottom of the table. How important is this result?

“We practically stole the game. They did everything they could to help us win this game. Eli Okobo missed that shot. I am happy. It’s like a robbery. You definitely feel the same way.”

It may seem that way, but you didn’t give up even when you were 12 or 15 points behind. Doesn’t that count too?

“Yes, that shows character. We haven’t won many away games this year. That’s how you build character, with victories like that. So we’ll see what kind of team we can be.”

The group’s chairman, Mr. Dimitris Giannakopoulos, was present today, which is not usual. Was that perhaps an additional motivation in the back of your mind?

“Yeah, that’s why we won the game, because he was here (laughs). It was nice. I think it was the first time he came to a game since I’ve been on the team. It was nice that we won and he was here.”

Two games remain until the end of the first round of the regular season, one against Armani in Milan (December 22nd, 9:45 p.m.) and one against Red Star (December 28th, 9:15 p.m.) in OAKA. What should you do for 2/2?

“We have to do a lot of things. We have to play better and emphasize the small details that are very important in EuroLeague games. We have to execute our plays better and play good defense. Then we have the chance to achieve both “victories”.