CSKA won the half finals game versus TAU and on Sunday would meet Maccabi in the Euroleague Finals.
TAU Ceramica vs. CSKA: 79-83
Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach:
- It was a very difficult game. Tau came in extremely prepared in the first half to take away our inside game. They broke all of our offense. And we didn't have the coordination between the inside and outside game. And we got nervous. The good thing is that we did not change anything from the first half. In the second half we had a lot of balance on the inside and outside. We had a lot of guys who worked hard on one side or the other. Now we are very tired and happy. For a few seconds at halftime I thought about changing something in our strategy. But I didn't think it was fair to change. If we didn't do something well, we just had to do it better. And if we made any changes then all the things we believe every day would be crushed.”
“It's very special to be back in the final. I have been very lucky to be in the final seven times. And it's especially special at this Final Four since it's the celebration of 50 years of the Final Four. So things here have been very delicate from a psychological and physical standpoint. Now we just have to focus on Sunday because if we win it will be something extremely big. It will be a final of two distinguished teams.”
“I felt a little bit like a young kid after the ceremony. I was a little bit lost for some part of the warm-up and some part of the game because of the ceremony. I have no problem saying that. But to see so many heroes was something that really really made me like this. I felt like a kid at Disneyland seeing so many of my idols and having my family in the stands. It took away a little bit of my concentration.”
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