By Dionysis Aravantinos / info@eurohoops.net
In what was a special night in Barcelona as the team honored Juan Carlos Navarro, the ‘Blaugrana’ easily defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv at home.
It wasn’t a pretty night for Maccabi as coach Neven Spahija was upset with the way his team lost: “We didn’t lose as a team and that is my biggest problem, bigger than the 22-point difference.”
He also congratulated Barca: “First of all, congratulations to Barcelona for the amazing basketball they played and for the win tonight, they deserved it.”
Moreover, the 55-year old coach focused on his team poor shooting: “We didn’t play good basketball and missed almost all our shots in the first half, even free throws. If you want to win at this level, you have to make some of, your free-throws and take shots with confidence. We put a good effort in the second half, but the game was already finished in the first half. This is not the way we want to play and the biggest problem for me tonight were the five fouls we made in the first half. That is not the way we want to play basketball. This team can win and lose, but we want to play with all of our effort, dignity, and fight for the position in the team, to be a team.”
Sito Alonso’s kept it simple, congratulating his team: “I only want to say congratulations to the players, to the supporters and special congratulations to Juan Carlos Navarro. Congratulations.”