At high noon on Friday at Stark Arena, the head coaches and key players from the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague finalists, Real Madrid and Anadolu Efes Istanbul, met with the media.
Championship Game press conference quotes, The Head Coaches
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Here is what coaches Pablo Laso of Real Madrid and Ergin Ataman of Anaodlu Efes Istanbul had to say about their semifinal victories and looking ahead to the championship game.
Pablo Laso, Real
“It’s the final game, it’s the Final Four, and we are happy to be here. There is a lot of work behind this, and I’m expecting a great game tomorrow.
“For sure losing Nigel [Williams-Goss] that early in the game was difficult. It didn’t change the game plan that much because I think some other people stepped up to cover his position. But it’s true that losing an important player that quickly always hurts. I think he is out for tomorrow, for sure. The injury is even worse than just a twisted ankle, and we will probably have to make tests when we come back to Madrid and see for how long the injury is. There are no secrets for Ergin [Ataman].
“[An injury] always affects you. Nigel is a player who was providing us with a lot of consistency. He played the point guard position and set the tone in defense, he was running the offense well, and losing him is really bad luck. When it comes to this stage of the competition, it’s bad luck to get injured before the Final Four, like happened to them, or during the Final Four. It’s a setback, but that’s all, we cannot do anything. We have to make up for that situation somehow, the best we can. In the end, I feel bad for him, because he is the one who got injured, and I’m sure he would love to be with us at this moment.
“Some people were talking to me about the legacy, about tradition, about what Real Madrid means. It’s a historic club, for sure, and, as a coach, I am proud of the fact that history is being written every day. I’m lucky that I can coach great players, but history is what pushes us to improve and be better each day. I think that for the people that are behind us, supporting us, they want to win, for sure, everybody wants, but I think they feel prouder of how the team is capable of working, what the team transmits, and that’s something that makes me proud, and I think it pushes us to do things better. I think that, in that sense, I’m lucky for being in a great club, for being the coach of a great team and for having great players.
“For sure, there are possibilities that [Thomas Heurtel could be used to make up for Nigel Williams-Goss's absence].
“I never doubt. I can have problems, like Ergin had, for sure. It’s a long season. I wish everything would go okay, but nothing in life is easy, nothing in life is granted or that easy that everything is going the way you want. We lose games and that’s finished. Is everything bad when you lose games? I don’t think so. Losing games doesn’t change me out of my way. That’s the way I feel. I think that right now I’m in a great position, I’m here. What else could I expect? I've been thinking about this from the beginning of the season. I don’t think about the past. The past is finished. We had problems but, which team didn’t have them? I know everyone is going to say the same thing. Ergin and I spoke behind the scenes a lot of times about this. How couldn’t you be without problems? Injuries, playing 80 games…. Everybody saying Real Madrid is not good, Efes is not good because they are losing… we had problems, for sure, but we are here. Period.”
“The first thing to do in a Final Four is to recover quickly from the effort of yesterday’s game. That’s normal. We will have to see how the team is today, as well as work on switching our minds, as we play against a different team. I see the team in good condition. The only thing I can say against that is related to Nigel’s absence. I see the team is well, but not only now, but throughout the whole season. Like I said before, we went through both good and bad moments, but I think we got here in good shape, both physically and mentally. How do I imagine tomorrow’s game? Honestly speaking, I cannot answer because I don’t know. I always imagine we win; I try to stay positive and believe we are going to win and become European champions. But I have a lot of respect for Efes, they are a great team, with great players, and I give a lot of credit to the fact that we have to do a lot of things well in order to win. If I focus on my team, I also see it in good condition.
“I don’t think that the possession stats are going to be decisive like in the previous games. It’s a different game so nothing to say about what happened yesterday either for them or for us. It's a completely different game. We got to match up a great team so we have to find solutions in our defense, in our basic defense, in some different situations we can match up, but understanding that Nigel won’t play. I think Nigel could be a good factor to play against Efes, but he is not going to be there, so we will have to adjust both offensively and defensively. For me, that’s more important than the number of game possessions.
“If my players don’t understand that they just won one game yesterday and that it’s finished, and that they have to play another one tomorrow, if they don’t understand that, then I’m going to tell them, they are pretty stupid.
“Efes is a great team beyond the individuals. I think we all can agree that Larkin and Micic are both differential players. That said, to stop Micic and Larkin can be very easy. I can put two players on Larkin and I can put two players on Micic and I will stop them. But that’s why they are so great because they will find someone else and that one will kill us. Last year, when they beat us in the fifth game of the playoffs, the best player in my opinion was Singleton. For me, he was a key player and the key three-pointer was made by Simon. And I didn’t speak about Micic or Larkin there. Even if Micic and Larkin could be the best, or among the top in the EuroLeague, I believe that what makes Efes so good is to have them and the attention they claim for them. I’m not thinking of stopping Micic or Larkin. I won’t be happy if we keep them at 0 points and Efes beats us. What I want is to play good team defense. Obviously, we have to understand we need to play good defense on them, but as a team. I don’t think anyone will be able to stop any of them. That’s the way I understand basketball, my philosophy, and I have a lot of respect for them, for their team and their staff. I don’t think they are just Micic and Larkin.
“Honestly, I don’t have a magic recipe for the team. I believe in my team’s work, and I think that the team has to understand some situations, that maybe in September for instance, I’m not telling them: Look, this will be useful later, when we play a final, or for the day we are going to have a very important game. That’s why I always believe in the development of the team. That’s my philosophy as a coach. And that’s why you could see me in games like yesterday’s, I’m pretty calm because I think all the work is done. When it comes to motivation, I always say that these kinds of games are the easiest ones for a coach, because the players are already motivated. I think that all players that are going to play tomorrow are like that. If a player doesn’t feel motivated when facing a EuroLeague final, he wouldn’t probably deserve to play it. What I believe, and I try to emphasize it from the beginning, is that we have to understand what we have to show, what we have to transmit. In the end, winning or losing is just a result. Sometimes it seems that everything is bad when you lose and everything is okay when you win, and I don’t think like that. When we lose, my approach is that we need to keep working and to make them see that this work will pay off, step by step. The most important thing for me is that the players understand where they are.
“I won’t go [to Paris, to attend the Champions League football game]. I can’t. I play Manresa on Saturday at 16:30. My kids want to go, but I won’t go. I will be playing in Manresa playing.”
Ergin Ataman, Efes
“After an amazing season and an amazing semifinal that we played yesterday, it's glory for us to play in the final three years in a row. We will play one more final and we will try to defend our championship.
“Real Madrid is a great team and they have a very experienced head coach in Pablo Laso. We felt that in a great deal of games we played against each other last season and this season. He always makes surprises, secrets, and tactically he always prepares something that is unexpected. They are dominant around the hoop with Tavares, Poirier, Yabusele, Randolph, the strongest players. It will be a game of various strategies. With the creativity of our playmakers, we will try to create a difference. Real Madrid is a team that uses big guys better. We won one, lost one this season. It will be a challenging final game. The semifinals showed how close all the teams are. We want to win and we will win.
“In football, in Turkey, there are a lot of fans of Real Madrid. And one of them is my son. He is a member of the junior Real Madrid fan club. Every year we receive a gift from them. In football, we support Real Madrid, but tomorrow we want to win.
“I have to say that’s the reality of the sport. You will not find any team that will win every time all season. Okay, we had a problem at the beginning of the season; it’s true that I was upset, but more than the results. The play that we played the last three years we played great basketball, but in the beginning of the season we had a lot of problems, we didn’t find our rhythm, I was upset, we talked many times with the players, with the team strongly, but every time I talked also in that period that we are the champion team and finally I believed that when the time arrives, the real time, my players will focus and will start to play to win. That’s the reality of the sport. Now I will meet Pablo. I have great respect for him, good friend. It’s a final game. I am very happy to meet with him after this long season in the final.
“In my philosophy, every game has a different history, every game is different. So I don’t think that yesterday’s game’s possessions will affect tomorrow. Tomorrow for sure both teams will have a diff style actually our style will be the same, but Pablo now said something that we must think that he said maybe Heurtel will play. If Heurtel will not play, so they will play with five bigs. Last game in Istanbul, Yabusele was defending our guards. Last year in the playoffs he used against us matchup zone. So this will be important in our side tactically. But our game will be the same. This is my philosophy. I have especially great perimeter players and I give them full responsibility with insight to our system and we will try to play the same way.
“I think that I have champion players and they enjoy playing in our system, our system gives them the responsibility to play a running game, to play a transition game, and this is very productive for the perimeter players, for guards with this potential. At the end, I decide if I have a timeout to feel who is more hot. Yesterday Shane had an injury in the last quarter, he was out 3-4 minutes, then [when] he joined the game, he didn’t join the game with same rhythm that he had in the first half. One minute before he had a problem to beat Sloukas one on one; we tried to play isolation against Sloukas with him. I felt in the timeout that Micic was more ready, had more power in that situation. And we tried to use the pick and pop to attack Vezenkov with him. Honestly, I didn’t tell him to shoot the ball. Every time I tell my players, that they can take the responsibility to read what they need because if I told him 100% to go to the basket and the player stays inside, then he’s not. So he reads the situations, he has this confidence, he missed maybe two or three more easy possessions before in the last 3 minutes. We had five-six easier possession than the last one, but we didn’t find the score in the easy shots, easy penetrations. In the playoffs against Milano, Shane told me in the timeout that he was very hot and he told Micic, they are very good friends. Also during the game, they decide if I am not. Shane told me, ‘I am very hot, give me the ball,’ and Micic gave the ball to him and he finds possessions. So this is a feeling between us and a feeling between the players that they played four years together and they know how to manage to win.
“Elijah Bryant really contributed for us this season, especially last night with Micic and Larkin not able to find their rhythm. And that was critical for our system. Like Laso said, Micic and Larkin are our star players, but we cannot play with only two players. Bryant was actually the hero of the semifinal game. Everyone is talking about the buzzer-beater of Micic, but Elijah was behind the curtains. Tibor Pleiss was the MVP of the last playoff game against Milan. Our big guys work in a system to feed them all the time. But when Dunston fouled out, Pleiss made contributions on defense and we defended well.
“The most special championship game is the one when we become the champions. We will see tomorrow night how things go.”