By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Kyle Hines, as also Kostas Papanikolaou, lost the chance to fight in the final for their own personal three-peat. However the way CSKA Moscow lost one more close game was just heartbreaking and Hines tried to figure out after the final buzzer what went wrong.
As he said: “We controlled the game for 39 minutes and 30 seconds, but we just didn’t finish off the right way. We have done many mistakes, we allowed them and their fans to get into the game. I mean for three quarters and a half quarters the gym was pretty quiet. When the fans got something to cheer about, we let them back into the game. We had also a couple of unforced turnovers and basically we shot ourselves in our foot. We have to give credit to Maccabi because they made some very big shots and they took advantage of the moments”.
So is there in CSKA’s mind something we can call “fear of winning”, or it just a matter of things happening on the court: “I don’t know. I really don’t know. I would like to say that it was a matter of basketball, but I don’t know what this means. We just allowed them to get confidence and get into the game. We gave up the control of the game and we never took it back. We allowed them to make plays, we allowed them to do what they wanted to do. That’s what happened”.
Hines was a member of Olympiacos, when they beat pretty much the same way CSKA Moscow in the 2012 final, but now he got to know the other side of the coin: “It’s the first time in a very, very long time that I felt this way. I guess it’s only right I am feeling the other side after the past couple of seasons. Sometimes you have to taste both. For me this is the situation now, but I am fully confident that we will get here again and hopefully we will get a different result”.
And it’s a pretty hard pill to swallow: “Definitely the other feeling was better. I also feel for my guys, my teammates, because we give it all for 39 minutes and 30 seconds and in the last 30 seconds we didn’t. I guess that shows basketball is a 40 minutes game and you certainly should be focused”.
Still the mentality of Hines doesn’t change and he wants next season to be back at the Final Four and hopefully go all the way: “What happened is more motivation for me and for my teammates. For me, personally, when you have tasted the winning “drug” you want more of it and for the first time after two seasons, I am going home without the Euroleague trophy by my side. It’s kind of disappointing, but it’s more motivation for me to fight and get back”.