Chus Mateo: “We had a great second half”
“The team reacted well and opened up the game with a huge run,” said the coach after the victory over Morabanc Andorra.
Chus Mateo analysed Real Madrid‘s victory over Morabanc Andorra. The coach had the following to say after the game: “Not every team wins here, it's not an easy court and I'm delighted. In the end, the difference in PIR was huge. We opened the game with a big run in the third quarter and surprised them. We reacted really well when we were seven down.”
“There were two very different halves. We started the game well, played with attacking intent, but by half-time we had lost 18 balls. We made it too easy for them in the first half and they believed they could win. In the second half, we played more logical basketball, only making four turnovers, and we made good shot selection and execution of the systems. We also defended better and held them to 29 points in the second half.”
“In the first half we didn't do that well and we were all disappointed because of that. We gave away a lot of balls. In the second half we were much more careful with the ball. When we have our heads in the game, we understand how to do things, we have enough patience and we play with discipline, things go better for us. Today, we had a great second half.”
Accumulation of matches
“The hard thing in these situations is for people to stay focused. There are a lot of matches and, if you add the national team games on top of that, you accumulate a lot of minutes, a lot of fatigue in your legs and a lot of travelling time. You have to have a very strong head and a very tough mentality to be able to stay focused in every game.”
Moment of the season
“We have a very clear objective, which is to finish as high as possible in this league with most of the players still standing. We have managed to get to the Copa del Rey really well and we're also going to try to get there as well as possible when we play for the trophies.”
Tavares
“He's getting better and better, it's a question of time. He is a crucial player for us. We have Poirier who is at a superb level as well. We need both of them. Tavares had a great game today.”