Xavi Pascual: "Avtodor really played very well"
Zenit's head coach shared his impressions after the second victory of the season (103:86) at the post-match press conference.
— First of all, I want to congratulate Avtodor for their game. Really, they play very well. The first half, we didn't play good defense, sometimes because of our concentration, but also because they play very well. Second half, from the third quarter, we started to play a little bit better defense. But it was in the last quarter when we really closed our ring. And our game in offense was stable, more or less we found a lot of open shots during the game. Despite the fact of too many turnovers. But we closed this game with this win. And now we have to recover well for the next game in Kazan.
— Did you expect such an equal battle in the beginning?
— Yes, I spoke with my players before the game and also I said that this team is well coached. And we knew that it's not going to be easy this game.
— Zenit scored more than 100 points two games in a row. This happened spontaneously or is it your goal? Do you think you should continue scoring more than 100 points?
— As a coach in all the games I try to score as more points as possible in every game and less points from the open. In general, our game in the offence was good in both games. But defensively, still, we have to improve in our transition defense. And also in the last seconds of possession we are making a lot of mistakes.
— Zhbanov made a perfect performance. Do you think he's one of the X-Factors of that win?
— Yeah, I'm very happy for him because he was making excellent preseason. But after that, he lost a little bit of confidence and he was a little bit under the level that he practiced because he's practicing very well. And today also Igor Volkhin played well. Igor and Georgy helped us a lot. They gave us balance defensively and helped on the rebounds. And also scoring some points when they had opportunity to score.
— Next game you play in Kazan against UNICS. What will be the main during your preparation?
— Okay, now I need at least today to enjoy the victory. And from tomorrow we'll start to prepare for Kazan. But for sure it's a big game. If we want to win, we have to play excellent. One team with big quality.
— Xavier Moon said after last game that Trent should buy burgers because he scored 100 point of the game against MBA-MAI. So please tell us is Trent bought burgers to the team? And will Omari buy burgers now because he scored 100 point of the game?
— Inside of the team they have this kind of thing, so probably he will do it. It's possible. I don't know. This is something that the players manage. You need to ask the players.
— Last season Zenit was unlucky in the third quarter many times. This season it looks like Zenit starts to look better in the 3rd. Do you agree?
— I work to win all the quarters. It's not something that is coming through a strategy or something like this, for sure. These two games, particularly when we went to the locker room, we talked about defense, how to improve, how to solve some particular problems. But we discuss this a lot of times. The games are 40 minutes. And the most important thing at the end of the game is to win by one.
