By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
VITORIA-GASTEIZ — When you need defense, you have to have Daniel Hackett on the floor. And that was what the Italian guard was thinking with CSKA down by 14 points in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague semifinal against Real Madrid.
“We never stop believing”, said Hackett after the game. “We have beaten Real Madrid two times in the regular season and now it was the third. When we were down by 14 points, I was thinking to myself “please coach give me the opportunity to go inside and help”. Well, at least on defense. We started switching on defense. I gave my breath, my heart, my everything for the team. We made a pushed and pushed, we made it a five-point game”.
And that was a key moment when everything clicked and now Hackett and CSKA have every right to believe that they can go all the way and win Sunday’s final: “At this point, we started believing even more. We achieved the win thanks to details. We are a great group of guys, every one of us is working like crazy for CSKA. In the final, things will be hard against Micic and Larkin, but we will make our plans and fight”.
Here are the full quotes of Daniel Hackett.