BARCELONA, 16 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Barça coach, Sarunas Jasikevicius, celebrated having beaten Real Madrid (97-88) in the first game of the Endesa League Playoff final and assured that this is “the way” in a fight for the title that he foresees ” like this”, matched in many moments and that he opts for “details”.
“This is the way to understand that this is going to be the case. We have seen good basketball from both teams, we have been much better in defense in the second half. But even so they score important baskets and we have to be prepared. But we won, we are 1-0 and we have to forget this and learn,” he said at a press conference.
“We have been able to get some advantages, from the third quarter we were always on top. They played their weapons, they have capacity, and we knew how to hold on with character. But the Real Madrid team has a lot of character”, he added in this regard.
He also celebrated that the response of his players to the problems that arose in the game was just as good as in the entire previous Playoff. “We have been experiencing this situation for a long time. The team has responded in the last two weeks and I’m staying with it. We got over the visit to Carpena, with Unicaja’s great season. We are concerned about details and recovering, to make the same effort or maybe a little more. You have to put up with this,” he asked.
And he thanked the support of the Palau Blaugrana. “We have no doubt. He is always very good with the team. If possible, we ask for more because the team needs to receive energy. And they supported Niko like any other player, even more because we know the difficulty of the situation. The important thing is how we are responding on the field, Niko too”, he pointed out about the good reaction of the public with a Mirotic that will leave the team after this final.
On the other hand, he denied that Real Madrid could suffer on a physical level despite having some absences, such as Deck’s. “He has a super long bench and in these situations experience is important. They know how to dose themselves. Tavares is used to playing more than 30 minutes in big games. If we both manage to fight at this rate, the details will decide,” he valued.
Finally, he claimed the good role of his interior men to stop Walter Tavares. “Tavares has walked around Europe in recent years but no one is going to walk through Barça’s basket. He has not walked, we have known how to stop him very well”, he celebrated.