Jasikevicius: In Game 5 we finally showed our real face

Barcelona coach Sarunas Jasikevicius talks after the game 5 win in the playoff series against Zenit.

“I think we set the tone from the first moment. We were very physical, very serious defensively. Offensively, we lacked a little bit of patience, like we spoke at halftime, too many turnovers the whole day. It helped that some of the players really had a very good, calm performance, which got us into some good stuff, and we found some solutions. For sure, this is something to understand for the players, how difficult it is to go to the Final Four. But at the same time, a club like Barcelona has to be there more times, and this is what we will try to do. We will try to build something here and hopefully, we can make it more years in a row.”

“Congratulations, first of all, to our players and fans. More importantly to our fans, the Dracs, who supported us here before the game to give a good feeling for the players. One more time, because of this situation, it is a shame that the people cannot be part of such an incredible situation. I think not only the players and coaches live for these moments, but also the fans. I can only imagine how Palau would be today with them. With all my respect, congratulations also to Xavi [Pascual] and Zenit for this amazing season, for an amazing series. I told Xavi after the game that for me, as a young coach, it was really amazing to go to the series against him and to learn and to experience this. It made me a better coach, for sure, for my future. And what was important about the game is that we finally showed our real face. We showed our physicality, our seriousness. It was not perfect, it will never be perfect… It was just a very nice feeling, not just to win and to advance, but also to play good, serious basketball. We need to understand why we couldn’t do it in the first four games.”