Xavi Pascual: "In every game you have to be better than the day before"

Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual commented on the result of the home match against Lokomotiv Kuban (106:79). This game was the first for the blue-whites in the semifinal series of the VTB United League.

— So, one more time, thanks to all the fans that they were with us. And we really ask for the second game to have the full stadium because we need them, it's going to be completely another game and we will need their support, they are crucial for us. One game against one great team, that we played our best basketball, in terms of offense I think we were very well, defensively we were not bad, despite the fact that we didn't control the defensive rebound, all the rest of the game was almost very good.

— How does today's game differ from the one in January? And can we say that Zenit took revenge today? Or are the games in the regular season and the playoffs unrelated?

— As I said before, it's a great opponent. We play already five times, so every game is going to be different. Today is the game that we dominate more. It was one game that Loko dominated the full game also. So this is only the beginning of the playoff. In front of us it's going to be a lot of games.

— In the quarterfinals, Lokomotiv had one more game than Zenit. Did this extra game factor somehow play in their favour at the start? Because Zenit had a 9:0 spurt at the start.

— No, we started very well, very concentrated. Also we were effective, our players opened the game excellent defensively and offensively. So with the energy that you play at home, we took this first advantage. And of course to open one game, one playoff game with this advantage always helps a lot the chemistry of the team, the mentality of the team, the confidence of the team. And from this moment we were very effective in the game.

— Zenit played great in defence from the first minutes. Did you purposefully prepare such a game for the playoffs?

— Yeah, of course we prepare every game and the way that we are thinking to win. Loko is the team with more possessions per game. So we have to control the tempo all the time, our transition defence and also our defensive rebounds. Always it's going to be very important. As I said before, our transition defence was always okay, but defensive rebounds, especially in the first half, we suffered a lot. They took nine offensive rebounds. If I'm not wrong, in the second half, they took six. But still, we need to do a better job in the next game if we want to win.

— From the end of the third quarter, Lokomotiv put their main players on the bench. Did you have an opportunity to give Ryzhov and Scherbenev more playing time?

— Every game is different. We'll see what is going on in the next one. Always we are trying to take the best decisions to win and to keep the balance of the team with all the players. We are one team. Doesn't matter who played. It’s more important to win.

— How can Loko improve in the next games? And how not to lose concentration throughout the series, which may be long?

— I'm sure that Loko is going to come back to the next game completely ready for the game. They have a very good organization and very good players. As I can answer about ourselves, our team, that for sure we need to keep our mentality, to be focused, to understand the details that we didn't make in the right way and to do it better in the next game. This is playoff and every time, in every game, you have to be better than the day before.