David Blatt preferred to speak about his team’s errors and the opponent’s virtues, rather than put the blame on the erratic decisions of the referees, after the home defeat to Power Electronics Valencia (64-71).

The Press Conference:

David Blatt (Aris coach): “This was the first half of it. There will be another game, too. We made too many unforced errors, missed quite a few open shots and had some bad moments in the game. We didn’t show character in defense and Valencia, which is a very good team, took advantage of our bad decisions. That’s why we will go with a 7-point disadvantage in the return game.

I’d like to speak about the referees, but I can’t. I don’t usually talk about them and in this case, if I started talking, I would probably say too much.

It’s a problem for us in offense when our key players are missing or when they don’t score. In these cases, we should pass the ball in the paint more often and we should take better care of ball possessions. Today we had more ball possessions than our opponents, but we couldn’t take advantage of them, partly because of Valencia’s good defense and partly because we didn’t do what we should”.

Neven Spahija (Power Electronics Valencia coach): “I must congratulate my players, because it isn’t easy to win in this gym. Congratulations to the Aris fans, too, for the unique atmosphere they created. One reallyenjoysplayinghere.Ourgameplanwasperfect.We knew exactly what we had to do. We have enough experience to know how to approach every game. Our defensewasthekeyto thevictory.In the return game we must repeat such a performance, in order to qualify to the Final Four”.