By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The “Whites” are still in the race for the home court advantage and coach Pablo Laso explained that the upcoming contest against the Greeks will be more than crucial: “This is it – we have to look forward and next week, we have a very difficult game against Panathinaikos at home. We have to use games like this to keep growing as a team and I congratulate Fenerbahce for the win, of course.”
Speaking of the game, Laso explained that he was happy with his team: “I believe the game was be read in two different ways. First, based on stats, it was a balanced game, we even had a higher team PIR, but their three-point shooting was decisive. They hit 13-of-20 three-pointers, it is a high percentage and some of the shots were contested. They are a talented team which can do that. The feeling that we have is that the team worked well. I have the feeling we did a lot of good things during this game but paid a high price for some mistakes – some bad offense, a miss that turns into a shooting foul at the other end, particular situations in which they punished us in such a balanced game like this was.
For Zeljko Obradovic, the main point was the reaction of his team in the second half: “It was the typical game between these teams. We have played against each other a lot in the last few years and it is always tough to play against Real Madrid. I think we started the game really well and after that – and this is something I was talking to my players about before the game – we had to think on the game only, be focused in tough moments and keep our concentration. We lost all that, above all due to Madrid’s reaction and our own mistakes. When you are not focused and think about this and that, it always goes wrong. We talked about it at halftime. My players only have one job, and that is playing basketball, being aggressive on defense and offense. And we changed. In the end, we deserved to win the game against, I insist, a great team which, in my opinion, has had an excellent season until now if you think about the many injuries it had. It is an important win for us but we have to play six more games. We have to keep fighting and see where we stand at the end of the regular season.”