Xavi Pascual: "We lost all our advantage in two and a half minutes"

Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual shared his thoughts following Game 5 of the VTB United League finals against CSKA (84:89).

— First of all, I would like to congratulate CSKA for this win. Second, big thanks to all the fans one more time that they were with us. One game that we were leading 33 minutes in the right way and playing very well defensively, offensively, rebound, turnovers, controlling all the parts of the game. And we lost all the advantage in two and a half minutes. We shoot more or less alone and we missed. We make turnovers, transition defense that we didn't run well. After that the game was very difficult to play because it was ball by ball and we had more turnovers, we lost the ball also in the last position, also we lost three rebounds in the last seven minutes. It is incredible how we lost the game today, to tell you the truth is incredible.

— What could be the reason for what happened in those two and a half minutes?

— It is difficult to say because we had two open shots, more or less, that we scored during the game. Maybe we lost a little bit the tempo, we have to play a little bit more longer. And after that, when we wanted to react, the problem was the turnovers. Easy in the half-court, also from the low post, and also in that moment of the game we lost the control. Also the rebound, that in all the series we didn't have big problems on the rebounds. We lost three offensive rebounds in one action. I don't know, sometimes the coaches, we have no words too much. Despite the fact that we maybe we were a little bit tired and in general in this series we are paying hard price that we played seven games against Lokomotiv Kuban. This is why physically we have injures and like this but today the end of the game is something difficult to explain.

— What is Georgy Zhbanov's current condition? He came back today, played selflessly, looked well in defense and offense, but it was like he was playing through pain anyway.

— Yes, for sure, Zhora is injured and he play with one injure. He made a big effort to help the team, just to say thank you to him. He plays on the limit of the pain all the time. We'll see how it's going to be tomorrow. Also, as you know, Alexey Shved is better, but also with some small problems and a lot of players are like this. Also Karasev is not here. The truth is that this is one reality, but there is no excuse. Finally, the sport is like this, win or lose. Today we lose. Nothing else.

— How much does the team miss Sergey Karasev and is there a chance that we will see him in the finals?

— I think it's very difficult that he will come. So I think no, and we miss him very much. All the season we were playing with him, he was an important player: starting five sometimes, from bench another time but always helping a lot. He made us to have another rotation with size that allowed us to control more rebounds, to play better defense. Also in offense it is one specific player. We miss him, we miss him very much and as in the Game 4 we were unlucky after to win the Game 3 to have these two injuries also was very important because we couldn't play the Game 4. Today we saw the team that recovered better with two players more in helping but this is the reality. The previous year before playoff we lost Dubljevic and Kuric. To this year we had these three injuries. This is life. Sometimes it's like this.