Scariolo: “I can only say good things about my players' effort”
“Rebounding was the most important factor in this game,” explained our coach after the Euroleague final.
Sergio Scariolo analyzed the Euroleague final in the press room of the Telekom Center in Athens. Our coach praised the team's work against Olympiacos: “I can only say good things about the effort of my players. It wasn't just effort, it was great basketball. Preparing a game like this, with this new scenario in two days, after already having changed our basketball style twice, both offensively and defensively, and having to adjust so many times in recent weeks... it was a great effort.”
The merit of his team
“It was a great result in terms of how we played, how we fought, how we competed, how we shared the ball, and how we helped each other. Obviously, 16 fewer rebounds in a game is a big difference. And that was probably the true key to the game.”
“It may be predictable, but at the same time, we knew it was going to be an important factor. But the game was decided by small details. Nobody saw us in the Final Four at the start of the season, but we got there, we grew, we improved, and we were ahead on the scoreboard for many minutes in this final.”
“I am a bit emotionally sad. We need to be sad. But we must be super proud of the work we've done during the season and in these last unfortunate weeks.”
The refereeing and the absences
“I don’t want to touch on the refereeing issue now. You play under these circumstances, and you know you have to pay some kind of price; whether it’s small or big, we'll see once we review the game. We'll set that issue aside for now. As for the rest, there's always something you can try. There’s no guarantee it will work completely. You can do many things well tactically, but you can’t add height to the players. No matter how much they want to grab a rebound 20 centimeters higher than they can reach, they just can’t do it. The vast majority came down to a clear physical difference, and you have to give credit to those who managed to exploit it. They grabbed 12 offensive rebounds, and we couldn’t secure many second chances. Rebounding was the most important factor in this game.”
Disclaimer: Translation generated by artificial intelligence. It may contain inaccuracies.