Bilbao Basket faces the visit to Real Madrid on Sunday after a tough European defeat on Tuesday in Miribilla against Lenovo Tenerife, with a basket almost on the buzzer by Jaime Fernández, which left some players “very emotionally affected”. “We made the mistake of only thinking about those decisive final actions, but then we have emphasized that our main mistake was how we started the game. There we were a very bad team. What happened in the end is sport against a Tenerife with quality, experience and to which everything went to their face ”, reflects Ponsarnau. The reading made by Tàrrega’s coach of the rest of the match was positive because he considers that “the remaining 35 minutes were probably the best of the season” and, furthermore, the “second unit” responded better than the theoretical starting team, opening the range of options in rotation. “We lost the game for the starters, but we won the game for the reserves by a lot. This is a novelty and it is welcome because perhaps from now on we have to be more open to changing the rotation rate and not being so determined, ”he reflected.
Facing the clash at the WiZink Center, he assured that they are going to focus all their attention on this event to “take advantage of these 40 minutes against Real Madrid to be better” on Tuesday in the decisive Champions League match that they are going to play in Istanbul against Darussafaka. “Madrid is a great team with talent, quality and physique, but we will try to make things difficult for them. We have the feeling that our best game at home was against them and we will try to repeat the things we did well in that match to take a competitive step away from home”, he explained. Among all the virtues of Chus Mateo’s team, the ilerdense highlighted his “overflowing talent in the race”. “Running they are incredible and we will have to make a huge effort to come back to shorten their counterattack options,” he said.
This Madrid seems not to be as scary as Pablo Laso’s fruitful stage, but Ponsarnau trusts Chus Mateo: “All changes cost. Pablo’s trajectory was spectacular, also because in difficult moments they gave them an answer, that whole stage became great with Pablo’s work from patience. Madrid will surely find a way to write another fantastic stage”. Bilbao is not very gifted at running, but their coach believes that they can do it against the white sparks. Andersson and Smith are doubtful. The Swedish ‘four’ is still recovering from the low back pain that has caused him to miss the last two games while the American guard has not been able to train with the group in recent days due to a viral process. “Adam, let’s hope he’s there and as for Denzel, it’s more difficult, but we’ll try until the end,” Ponsarnau pointed out before congratulating himself that the three point guards Hakanson, Radicevic and Ubal “are getting better every day” and will enter the league without problems. Rotation against the merengue team.
For his part, Ignacio Rosa intends to forget the match against Tenerife “and think about winning the next one to get up”. Physical problems leave him options to play more minutes. “I’m happy, trying to help the team by adapting to my role and taking advantage of the opportunity.” He believes that Tsalmpouris will help give Bilbao Basket more dynamism. “Madrid have players of a higher level, they may come in a little tired after two Euroleague games this week and we catch them clueless, our advantage may lie in running.”