By Dionysis Aravantinos / info@eurohoops.net
By giving energy off the bench, Walter Tavares has helped Lasso’s team throughout this season and that’s what he did on Thursday’s game in OAKA in his eight minutes of playing time.
Real Madrid and Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens are tied up (1-1) heading to Madrid for next week’s games. On Tuesday, Panathinaikos demolished Real Madrid and as coach Lasso had stated Panathinaikos’ deserved the victory in the first ten seconds. Game 2 on Thursday, had an entirely different story to it with Real Madrid getting a critical win away from home.
Eurohoops caught up with Real Madrid’s center, Walter Tavares and he kept it simple when asked about the differences between the two games: “Game 2 was different. We learned from our mistakes in the first game, we figured it out and played perfectly.”
Real needs two wins to qualify for the Final Four and according to Tavares, the team has to play as they played on Thursday: “We need to play the same way we played tonight. We have to keep fighting, play aggressive basketball with high energy, never give up and go hard on every play.”
After the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague’s meeting in Madrid, according to owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos, Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens will leave the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and return to FIBA basketball. So, Eurohoops asked Tavares if he thinks that this was the last home game for Panathinaikos in the EuroLeague, but the Real Madrid player does not believe that PAO will leave the EuroLeague: “I don’t know, I really don’t know. It is sad. They (Panathinaikos) are one of the biggest teams in the EuroLeague. I don’t believe that they will eventually leave the EuroLeague. They are a big part of this competition, have amazing fans, and I think that it is sad.”
Finally, he also commented on the incident that happened in the final minutes of the contest between Thanassis Antetokounmpo and Rudy Fernandez.
“I didn’t see the play perfectly. It happened too fast, they started pushing and shoving each other, and I don’t know what else happened. They called a foul on Rudy (Fernandez), on Jaycee (Carroll) and Singleton but I didn’t see it clearly.”
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