“We all want to win the next game and go to Lithuania 2-0, but we have to go step by step,” said the Barça coach.
“We are happy to start the series well, but if you win 25 or 1, we go 1-0 and nothing else,” Saras said in the preview.
The Barça coach, Sarunas Jasikevicius, assured that “the mental part” will be “the most important” in the second game of the Euroleague quarterfinals between the Catalan team and Zalgiris Kaunas at the Palau Blaugrana after the convincing first victory achieved on Wednesday.
“We all want to win the next game and go to Lithuania 2-0, but you have to go step by step and above all do a lot of mental work on yourself before the game. The mental part is the most important,” said the Lithuanian coach on Thursday. from the press room of the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper.
Jasikevicius assured that his players “are aware of what they have to do” after winning the first game of the series (91-69) on Wednesday, although “later transferring it to the court is not so easy”, and confirmed that the entire squad will be available with the exception of the already known loss of Cory Higgins due to low back pain.
“We go 1-0 and nothing more”
“We are happy to start the series well, but if you win 25 or 1, we go 1-0 and nothing more. With the second game in 48 hours, we can only train the tactical and mental part. We have seen videos of what we did well and what we did wrong. And a little think about what they can try,” he explained.
Saras admitted that he expects a “reaction” from Zalgiris, with “physical” basketball and “a lot of contact”“, but he stressed that Barça must be the one that “imposes” its style of play “without waiting” for the proposal of a rival that will be “more comfortable” in hostile territory in a second game that will be “a new story”.