Championship Game pre-game quotes: Anadolu Efes Istanbul

"It’s going to be a battle, for sure. They are an experienced team. They’ve been here before, they won the EuroLeague here in Serbia, so I am sure they feel great, like a deja vu. They know exactly what it takes to win, we know what it takes to win. I think it is going to be big for us to get the rebounds. They have a lot of tall, big guys in the paint so I don’t think we can rely just on our big guys to pull rebounds against Tavares and Poirier and Yabusele. Even their wings crash the glass, Gabriel Deck, Abalde, Adam Hanga. It will take all of us, a team effort to get the rebounds and focus on the defensive side of the ball."

"It’s the Final Four. It’s a final, so both teams will play very hard because it’s one game and you need to do everything you can to win the trophy. We know Real Madrid is a very experienced team that has been there before. I played against them before so it’s going to be an intense game and we have to be ready for a fight. They are going to play their game, they are going to play big, and use the size they have. We will try to use our quickness, our speed. I think that whoever is able to control the tempo, to control the speed of the game, will have a chance to win. But it’s one game, so probably there are going to be adjustments. It’s one game and that’s one of the difficulties. It’s one game, you have to give everything and have no regrets. The key is to have no regrets at the end. [What I ask myself is] to be the best I can be for my team. I hope all my teammates are on the same page and we can push the team to win the title."

“It is really exciting – the opportunity to play for the title, one game. It is 40 minutes, you have to give everything you have and at the end of the day, we hope we will have a really good result. Transition defense is definitely going to be one of the keys. We have to slow them down and try to dictate the pace of the game and do the same that we do in the last game, battle them physically and try to keep them away from the paint. It is a final game and it is always going to be physical. We need to make sure we play physically without fouling so much, like we did in the last game – me and Singleton fouled out. We are going to play strong but need to look out for the fouls. On the rebounds, we have to push them [Tavares and Poirier] out as much as we can and have all five guys crash the boards.”