By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
In the rematch of last season’s EuroLeague Final, Fenerbahce got the win again, and coach Sarunas Jasikevicius was visibly satisfied after not playing last week against Olympiacos due to extreme weather conditions.
After all, as he said in the press conference, his team beat “the best team in Europe.”
As Saras explained: “It was an incredible win for us, of course. We hadn’t played a EuroLeague game for a few weeks. I said it before the game, and I’ll say it again now: in my opinion, Monaco is currently the best team in Europe. So, beating the best in Europe is fantastic for us. Obviously, at one point, it seemed like we wouldn’t be able to get back into the game, but we managed to. We had a great run and improved our defense. In the final quarter, the game became balanced, and we won. The players put in an incredible effort. Their effort, especially on rebounds, was amazing. Even though we shot very poorly from three-point range in the first half, we constantly found open shots, which was great. Still, the players fought until the end, and that’s the most important thing.”
So what changed at halftime? “What I told the players in the locker room at halftime was very simple. Don’t commit stupid fouls when we’ve already used up our foul limit, and try to make the three-pointers. Of course, every player wants to make three-pointers; that’s a different story,” Saras added.
On the flipside, coach Vassilis Spanoulis wanted more from his players: “Even when we were 17 points ahead today, we weren’t playing good basketball. This isn’t what I want to see from my team. We attacked too individually, we didn’t share the ball, we didn’t fight, and we couldn’t get rebounds. This is unacceptable at this level.”