Xavi Pascual: "Step by step we recovered the way, took the final advantage and closed this game"

Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual summed up the results of the winning meeting with CSKA (66:79), which took place in Moscow as part of the 29th round of the VTB United League regular season.

— First of all, It was very nice to play with 10 000 spectators today, so this is very good for Russia, very good for basketball. So my congratulations to CSKA, for their organization, about that. And second, it's one game that defensively we were very well, except the beginning of the third quarter, that we were lack of concentration. But all the rest of the game, defensively, I think we were in a very good level. Except defensive rebound, all the rest, it was good. And our game in offense, more or less, was okay. It was this moment on the beginning of the third quarter that we didn't play. But step by step we recovered the way and especially in the last quarter we could take the final advantage and to close this game.

— You were in the lead for almost the entire match, CSKA caught up, and in the fourth quarter, when the score was 56:56, it seemed that a turning point had come. What did you feel at that moment? What measures have been taken?

— It was one moment that CSKA was coming from down. Is a typical situation that CSKA used to change the way of the game and to led the score. But in this moment, we had two times in a row very good defense, we scored in fast break, we took these four points. That after that helped us mentally to go until the end and to win the game.

— Alexey Shved played a significant time today. He scored 9 points, helped the team in this very difficult match. Tell me please, the amount of time he spent, does it mean that the process of adaptation to the team, combinations, to the partners has already passed? Or can we say that Alexey will still show his best game in the playoff?

— I think he needs time and we need time to play with him, both, but as soon as possible he must be ready, so he needs to play. It's the only way to do it. And he helps a lot the team, he has the knowledge to do it, he understands what we want from him. But he needs time to be completely in shape and to understand all the situations. But in general we are very satisfied for the game that he's doing and for these days together that he's working very well.

— Trent Frazier spent almost 36 minutes on the court today. He scored the most points. Was there such a plan to play through Trent? Or did he just play and you decided that he would be the leader of the team today?

— We all have a plan before the game, but sometimes you have one player that feel the game like today Trent and you have to use him as more as possible because he was almost perfect. So it's not exactly that it was in my plan to play 36 minutes. It depends of the situation you play with more minutes with one player or less minutes with another player.

— There are currently 5 foreign players on the active roster. While Xavier Moon is injured, does the team need a reinforcement and a sixth foreign player? Or in this case, is the team ready to cope with the forces that are there?

— This moment we are not thinking about this, we are trying to find a way and the balance to understand which is the reality of the team in this situation, to go step by step. Of course we have this possibility in front of us if the organization decides to do it or all together we decide to do it, but now we are not thinking too much about this.

— What can you say about Okaro White? How he will change the style of Zenit?

— It is one player with good experience who knows very well the competition. He's a great personality, a good person and I think he will adjust very well his game with us. We need sometimes to increase our physicality in the court and to have this quality that he has that I think will give us a big balance in our team. So we are very happy with this sign. He's going to be with the team tomorrow so we will start to work together and I am excited to start to work with him.