By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Coach Xavi Pascual knew that a Game 5 will be more than difficult. The season of his team in Euroleague ended, however he had only good things to say about his opponents.
The coach of Barcelona said in the press conference: “First I want to say congratulations to Lokomotiv for the victory and congratulations to Coach Bartzokas, as well as the club management and the fans. It has been a beautiful series from a sporting point of view. Today’s game had different phases. First, we had lots of difficulty, defensively, entering the game. At times we were able to withstand the great play of Lokomotiv, who shot very well today. That was until halftime. In the second half, we dominated the third quarter and turned around the scoreboard. And when we were in a position to try to take the game, the rim closed on us, we committed two turnovers in a row and we couldn’t make shots in the last quarter. And that was the reason we lost this playoffs”.
As for what went wrong, Pascual spoke about Game 5: “It’s clear that we didn’t know how to take advantage of the home-court advantage we had to close the series. We had that opportunity in the fourth game, after winning the second one here, but like today, we couldn’t make shots in the last quarter. It has been a beautiful series, as I said, and we had our chances to win it.”
Source: Euroleague.net