By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The mood was grim in the open practice of CSKA Moscow and Barcelona. Defeat, specially just two steps before the final goal doesn’t have a good taste, but we asked Kostas Papanikolaou to compare the defeat of Barcelona with the one of CSKA Moscow.
As he said: “Both are defeats. Losing by one or being part of negative history for the biggest defeat in a Final Four semifinal. CSKA can say at least that they lost by one detail, we can’t say that. We can be angry because of the way we played”.
The former Euroleague champion with Olympiacos wasn’t expected the game to end up this way: “We went to the locker rooms 8 points down and the difference was our missed free throws. In then, in the third quarter, we lost our mind, committed unforced turnovers, missed many open shots. However, that’s the game. We missed them, Real made them, game over. Maybe we should have more energy, be more physical, because we got into their rhythm and let them do what they wanted”.
The final question was if the easy win of Barcelona over Real Madrid last week fooled them. Papanikolaou doesn’t believe that: “I don’t think so. That can be used only as an excuse. Barcelona last year lost both games to Real, one week before the semifinal for Liga Endesa and then the semifinal in London. For me this is only an excuse. It was not a factor and considering what I have seen during last week in practices, that was not the case”.