By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Khimki head coach Giorgos Bartzokas seemed relieved after his team’s victory over Unicaja Malaga in an exciting game that was decided at the buzzer.
As he admitted, this was an important win to reach the targets they had set. “Maybe it was our toughest game in EuroLeague this season. Everyone knows that it was a must-win game for us. The thing that Nedovic and Brooks didn’t play created an atmosphere that no matter why we should win. Somehow we managed to win. We know that Unicaja doesn’t have anything to lose and they have a lot of good players and a good coach. They were very consistent. We fought in every possession. We had 11 rebounds more that shows that we did it. The crucial last offensive rebound, Anthony Gill’s tip-in, gave us a very crucial win. The pressure that we had, how stress we were in this game it’s shown in our three percentage (5-of-33). We were decisive in loose balls, offensive rebounds, something that we did in the second half“.
For the visiting side, Joan Plaza thinks that his team deserves more credit despite the defeat:”When you lose for short difference you deserve like your opponent to lose or win the game. When you lose by a single basket you have made the same effort as your opponent. And we are losing some games for this differences. They controlled the rebound from the beginning. As a team, we didn’t box out tonight really well. Small situations at the end allowed them to stay in the game. We need to learn.”