Sasa Obradovic, the head coach of Monaco, spoke at the press conference after his team’s win over Valencia in the EuroLeague’s 31st round.
The Serbian coach was very pleased after this win and tried to explain how stressful such games are for coaches.
“I cannot describe how stressful this game was. This was an incredible win, perhaps the best since the beginning of the season, considering all the circumstances. Due to injured players, changing chemistry from game to game. You expect someone to play, but in the end, they cannot appear in the game, you expect more from some players, but they don’t deliver,” began Sasa Obradovic.
About the loss in the French Cup
“I don’t know how we lost that. You can’t imagine how much the defeat in that match hurt us. Mentally, physically, in every way, it drained us. The journey there, right after the game with Alba Berlin… But everyone was thinking as if the game was already won. No one knows what’s inside, how big the problems are. Everyone has them, of course, I don’t want to compare ourselves to others. I know that in two or three days, we’ll be a completely different team. But today, we had a tough opponent, we had to focus.
We come after a tough loss, we had to step onto the court and give our all. People must show respect, if you’ve bought a ticket and come to watch the game, thank you. But you have to understand, this is not theater, I’m not the one who should rally the crowd. The audience should come with their ticket and their voice, with the desire to cheer on the team, that’s what we need. At one point, I turned around, and I saw that no one was cheering. That’s impossible, we need support in such a tough moment.”
About the desire to avoid defeat
“We never accept defeat, and in previous games, we fought until the end. We always fight, maybe we don’t always have the right rhythm, but this team never wants to lose. They have already shown excellent character many times.”
About Mike James
“It’s incredible that we’ve played 60 matches this season, and in all those 60 games, he’s been the leader of this team, and he still shows the same zeal and willingness to help the team. That’s incredible. Of course, everyone loves him, I love him… But it’s not just James, Strazel played a great game, everyone is tired…
Diallo played without practice, he didn’t practice the whole week, it takes time for him to find his rhythm. And he depends on that rhythm, on minutes on the court… He’ll come back, I’m sure of that. We also have Loyd, also a tricky situation. We have to take care of him, he plays one game, skips the next. We’re careful not to overload him. This is a big problem for team chemistry.”
About rotations
“First, you have to play basketball for 26 years, then be a coach for 20 years, only then can you feel the game, analyze it. My strategy from the first minute in Monaco is that everyone has a chance, to distribute minutes, to look at who we’re playing against and who is best suited to meet the demands of a particular game. There’s no right time for someone to be ready, they always have to be ready. That’s the mark of a great team. Of course, there’s a hierarchy, who can make more mistakes, but everyone must be prepared to accept every minute on the court. That’s what we talk about every day.”
About Asvel
“They don’t have the pressure in the EuroLeague anymore, they use the EuroLeague to get better in the French league, to improve their form. They can be a problem for everyone, they showed that against Anadolu Efes. Today was the first final, but we have three more finals until the end of the season.”
About calculations
“How can we calculate now? Not everything depends on us, we calculate to win the remaining three games, that’s the only calculation I accept. Only then will we know who we’ll play against in the quarterfinals,” concluded Sasa Obradovic.