By Alex Madrid/ info@eurohoops.net
Ataman simply admitted that Tavares couldn’t be stopped: “We had a problem with defending Tavares, especially after Dunston got into foul trouble and our defensive quality dropped off. On offense, we planned to take more mid-range shots and three-pointers, and not attack Tavares inside. But we missed a lot of shots in the first half. In the second half, we tried to mismatch him with Derick Brown. Some minutes we had success, but we had problems defending him under our basket. After Doncic started playing effective, our defensive level went down again, and we lost the game. Tavares destroyed our balance. Dunston struggled to find his pick-and-roll offense in the first half, and on defense too. I think Tavares did a great job in the game tonight.”
Real Madrid‘s coach Pablo Laso from his side had only good things to say about his team: “First I want to congratulate the team for the win. I think it was a quite a solid game both from the offensive and defensive points of view. If there is a ‘but’, it would be the turnovers we had and unnecessary mistakes. But we controlled the rebounds and the pace of the whole 40 minutes. We won all four quarters. Luka Doncic could not practice until yesterday, was sick, and we did not know if he will be able to play. I think the team responded quite well and we were able to get a win, which is always difficult in the EuroLeague. This is a competition where each game is quite demanding, and I think we are still in a position where we still have to secure our place in the playoffs, which is not easy.”