Although Fenerbahce led by as many as 19 points (35:16) in the second half, inspired by Sylvain Francisco’s impressive layup, the Zalgiers slowly returned to the fight and finally broke the Euroleague champions.
“Congratulations to Tom and Žalgiris – they were more consistent in 40 minutes. We started well, especially in attack, then we couldn’t sustain it. The defense was poor throughout the match,” said Sharas.
When asked about putting S. Francisco through Tarikas Biberovičius, Š. Jasikevičius did not want to talk too much about it.
“There are emotional things here. The match is 40 minutes. In 40 minutes, they were, so to speak, more constant,” the Fenerbahce strategist brushed aside the question.
Ažuolas Tubelis played a wonderful game, scoring 26 points, rebounding 6 balls and collecting 31 utility points. The forward, who had hit just 1 of 7 three-pointers in two games before that, made three of four on Wednesday night.
Speaking about A. Tubeli Šar expressed his displeasure when asked at the airport on Tuesday whether Fenerbahce was willing to take a risk and let the Žalgiris player go.
“I don’t know, maybe we didn’t understand our defensive (system) after two games. Even yesterday, those questions at the airport about whether we let them shoot. No, we really don’t let them shoot. You can give them a little more time in some situations, but today we really looked like a village team, which is like “Žalgiris” when they come to Jonava and let them shoot three-pointers.
I don’t want to give them that much to quit. If we have a situation where we make a mistake, then Oak is better than Cisco or Sirvydis or something like that. But if you give them to throw one, two, three from the stand, then… This is not our game plan here and it never will be. Here is the EuroLeague and the highest level of the EuroLeague. He is a normal thrower,” said Sharas.
– At the airport, you said that you were waiting for surprises from “Zalgiris”. We saw a slightly different rotation. Was that a surprise or was there something else?
– Me with those surprises… Here only for you, the podcaster. There are those surprises one after the other, nothing changes here. What are you – you drove one car for eight months and then you’re going to do something? That never happens. If you look at the numbers, everything is clear here, why it was lost.
– “Žalgiris” started the match with a somewhat different defense. Was this one of those changes?
– “Žalgiris” played the same, maybe with Talen (Horton-Tucker) a bitch at times it started differently, we got along, but then it went with the things that were there all the time.
– Which numbers catch your eye the most?
– Balls. Balls, penalties – as always. We collect those fines here sometimes even in a very interesting way. “Zalgiris” threw 26 goals against us in the regular season, it’s strange how we don’t remove those numbers. They are already going to shoot those free throws a lot.
If you win by three points, that’s it ranking (offense vs defense rating difference – ed) which I hate so much because it doesn’t really reflect things but ranking “Zalgiris” was +18. The totality of pluses and minuses of all those things, they won by +18.
The question is how we stayed in the game here. If you take the first half of “Žalgiris”, there are 12 points – I tell the team after the first half that we are not defending at all. It was +12 just because they missed.
– When asked in Istanbul how to transfer all the energy to the third game, you said that you need to train well. What have you seen from the team these days?
– They trained very well. I think they understand that it won’t be (easy) here. The simple thing is to understand, and the next thing is to come and do it. Maybe that good start lulled us, but that good start was a good attack and fell (shots), and “Žalgiris” missed a bunch of free shots, went into their own hands.
Going to the left hand got to stand at the free throw line. We defended really poorly – over 20 fast break (quick attack – ed.) points. A couple of situations where we are taken and simply run around. It really can’t be.
– Before the match, you received chants from the supporting fans, a poster was raised that the Kaunas now rule the Euroleague. Would you agree with that statement?
– Really thanks to the fans, it’s so beautiful a gesture. It is always nice to return to Kaunas, to return to do work, and today we did not do the work.
