PLAZA, JOAN
Unicaja Malaga
“First, I give all my thanks to the crowd and everybody in Zalgiris organization for the beginning of the game. I feel proud that I worked here a long time ago, and I wish Zalgiris the best for the rest of my life. About the game, I think we put in a lot of energy. We competed pretty well. Like always, we never gave up. Even when everything was impossible, when we were 7 points down in second-to-last minute, we never gave up and kept competing and at the end we had a chance to score the last shot to win or tie the game. I am proud of my players that they don’t surrender, don’t give up and they fight until the end. Each team won two quarters, we won the first two, they won the last two. Zalgiris increased its aggressiveness with their hands on defense in the second half, which is quite logical for them, and we suffered because they sent us nine or 10 meters away from the basket. On the other hand, we need to be tougher and accept that on our offense, refs will not call every single foul. If they would, some teams would finish games with three players. So we need to accept it and not cry about it. We had a better index rating than Zalgiris but we lost, which means that sometimes rating means nothing. We need to be able to keep competing, we changed totally our face in the last month and a half, and we are competing everywhere and against anybody. Probably things will change in our favor, and I am happy how we are playing. Not many teams win here in Kaunas, and I am proud we competed until the last second. Jeff Brooks was our best player in the first game against Zalgiris, and it was a problem he did not play, but other players stepped up.”