By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
As the Greek coach said for the upcoming series: “The eight best teams are now targeting one goal. The first game is very important for us. We had good preparation. We play against a team that has big expectations, as we do as well. We also expect our fans to be over here. We do know it is going to be a tough series. We will focus on Game 1.”
Baskonia‘s coach Sito Alonso hopes that his team can get the break and the key is to have faith: “Believing that we can win is one of the most important things that we have when playing against CSKA. If they see in us any signs of inferiority to start, they will take advantage of it. But they are not going to see that. All the games are important. Obviously, when you are the visitor and you have two games there, both of them you have to try to get the victory. The first one, maybe with the opponent having a lot of experience and knowing the importance of that game, it’s key for them, the first game. But we can’t fixate on the first or second. We have to concentrate on each play and know that every opportunity that we get there, we have to go for it in a way that no one can take it away from us.”
French guard Rodrigue Beaubois also believes that Baskonia in what’s expected to be the most lopside series, can get the upset: “They are last year’s champions, a very good team. So we know it is going to be very difficult, but we are going to do everything we can to win. I feel we are ready. We know we have to play very hard, because they are one of the best teams in Europe, maybe the best. We have to go out there and play as hard as possible together, because we have to be together to beat that team. We have confidence as much as we can have. It would be very difficult to go there without confidence. We have to go out there without pressure, because they are the champions. So we have to go and play hard, and do our best.”
However, on the other side CSKA Moscow has the home court advantage and Kyle Hines expects his team to use it: “It’s an important time for us. Playoffs is something that we were working for all season, to get to this point. The most important thing is that we are taking one game at a time, focusing on Game 1. They have really good and talented team, a lot of talented players. We know each other very well, we played two games throughout the season, so we expect it to be a tough, physical, aggressive matchup. But it is most important for us to take one game at a time and to use our home-court advantage that we were fighting for all year.”