MADRID, 16 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Real Madrid basketball coach, Pablo Laso, recognized that the Copa del Rey “is a very demanding title” to win and for this reason he is clear that he only thinks about his quarterfinal duel this Thursday against the Breogán River, ” a final” that will not be played by “those who are not prepared” on a physical and mental level.
“The Cup is always a tournament that I personally like a lot and that is very attractive. If you talk at a European level, everyone talks about it and the best eight come together in a city with a great basketball atmosphere. It is a very demanding title for the teams and since I was a kid it always seemed like a very attractive competition at the moment of the season, with people who arrive better, others worse, but it is a title and I give it a lot of importance to understand it”, Laso expressed this Wednesday at a press conference .
The Vitorian recalled that the tournament “is a party” because in addition to seeing “great games” “fans of all teams” come to the city. “It’s special, it’s a great event and I always give it that value,” he reiterated .
The Madrid coach indicated that his team arrives at the meeting with both his legs and his head “loaded”. “It is the first year that we have arrived in this situation. We are all going to ‘jump to the ground’ due to the situation of the last two months and we have had a calendar with seven or eight games in 20 days with trips, very demanding games on a physical level and this worries me, but the mental aspect. Both are very important that the team has them clear, tomorrow we will give our maximum”, he warned.
In this sense, he drew from the NBA to refer to the physical condition of Gaby Deck, Jeffery Taylor and Rudy Fernández. “They’re on ‘Game Time Decision,'” he pointed out with a smile. “We are going to wait, but if you ask the three of them they tell you that they would play, but I have other problems like Abalde with an overload on his back, Hanga with his hamstring, Llull… I hope they are available, but I am not going to take risks because they want to play, I have to think what is best for the team and for their state”, he warned.
In any case, he made it clear that he only thinks about this Thursday. “It would be absurd to protect a player thinking about the next game. Tomorrow is a final, I prepare it as a final, and you have to go to ‘death’. Anyone who is not prepared will not play”, Laso asserted that Carlos’s injury Alocén forces him, by regulation, to choose the regulation correctly because he must put four formation players, among whom was the point guard, and two Americans.
The Real Madrid coach also clarified that he has not dedicated “these three days” to preparing for the Cup because that “starts much earlier”. “This year it has cost more, but the team has recovered well and in Malaga on Sunday they were very solid. They played with a lot of energy and we were able to stay in the game in the first half, and the second was very good. On Monday It was time to rest and it wasn’t time to ‘kill’ them to train but to refine things and recover people little by little”, he pointed out.
“BREOGAN KEEPS PLAYING MORE OR LESS THE SAME AS WITH OLMOS”
Regarding his first rival, the Río Breogán, he believes that “a big change” has not been seen after the departure of Paco Olmos and the arrival of Veljko Mrsic. “It is not a criticism, it is to speak well of both. Paco did a great job and Veljko has known how to maintain situations. The team continues to play more or less the same”, he opined.
“Mahalbasic generates a lot for them, they have good throws around them with Lukovic and Cruz, Sako gives them a lot of energy and on the outside there is Musa and Bell-Haynes or a very important player like Kalinovski, who is not talked about much and has almost 50 percent in triple. They have people who are very clear about their role and their level. Musa has had an impressive season and has a lot of points in his hands, it’s a high percentage of the team, but I can’t say that if he scores zero points we will win and if put 50 we will lose because I do not believe in situations of a decisive player, it would be belittling the rest”, he added about the Bosnian player.
Laso hasn’t forgotten his last Copa del Rey in Granada in 1995. “Of course I remember, Baskonia won and I was the MVP,” he said with a smile. “For us that moment was experienced in a special way because it was the first title, which was what we needed. We beat Joventut, who were the current European champions, Real Madrid who had a ‘great team’ with Sabonis and Zaragoza in the final. I have great memories and I’m glad that it’s recovered for the Cup cities that deserve it despite not having a team in ACB because Granada is a basketball city”, he remarked.
Finally, he confirmed that he has not thought about whether they will sign a replacement for the injured Carlos Alocén. “Right now everything has been very fast and I don’t think about it, but the club is always in the market. We have Heurtel, Williams-Goss and Núñez, plus the appearances of Llull and Abalde, so it’s not a panorama to say that we need a player there. It’s a fucked up injury because he’s an exceptional kid and with terrible luck this year. He gives a lot of things and we have to adapt to other players who give you something different”, he sentenced.