By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Spain downed Croatia and won first place in Group C but what truly matters, according to coach Petrovic, is that his players prepared for the trials of the knockout stage in Istanbul, Turkey.
“It was a great scrimmage for Croatia. We picked up Spain for the scrimmage game because both teams had already qualified. For us, it was a great practice. Because we practiced what we didn’t do during the preseason in the first three games. We need to prepare because if we play against Turkey or Russia, it’s a different kind of game. They play a different style. It’s a reason why I picked up tonight’s game to practice on playing with two “4s” at the beginning or four or even five perimeter players because maybe that’s how we need to play in Sunday’s elimination game,” Petrovic said during the post-game press conference.
“What can we say about Spain? We were a little bit afraid of Spain’s results in the first three games. We knew about their quality. But we came to play this game with heart. I’m a little bit concerned because, after 33 minutes in one intense game, Croatia had 0 free throws. 0 free throws after 33 minutes. Anyway, I’m satisfied with the second position. We go to Istanbul ready to play the elimination round. That’s it. Congratulations to Spain for victory.
I think that the result of this game saved the Istanbul game of Turkey – Latvia. If this result was the opposite, you would see that nobody would want to win that game. Because they’d want to avoid Spain. We think that we helped all these teams to play honest basketball,” Petrovic added.
(Photo credit: FIBA.basketball)