By Alex Molina / info@eurohoops.net
It was a tough night for Baskonia in Sofia.
And after losing to Hapoel Tel Aviv, Paolo Galbiati showed no restraint in criticizing his players.
“Defensively, it was a tough night for us. We were inconsistent in one-on-one; they scored every time. They scored a lot of mid-range pull-up, credit to them, but with this kind of defense, we cannot compete”.
One of the things that made the Italian coach even more mad was the lack of passion from his players.
“At halftime, I was a little bit mad with them because I truly believe we can compete. OK, they are an unbelievable team, but when we play our game and style, from -14 we come back to -5. But then, we stop to play defense. We need all the players every night. It was tough to accept for me; many of them didn’t show the fire to compete at such a level. I am a little bit mad now”.
Like all season long, Baskonia was a different team compared to home games.
“It’s easy to play in Buesa, but I think we have a team that can compete at this level. But we need everyone with the desire to win these games”.
The only positive note from the game was Markus Howard coming back from his injury.
“Markus is a very important player for us. It’s my job to make him enter the team dynamic. He is very intelligent, and he will fit perfectly”.