Still empty on road

Laboral Kutxa (Vitoria) vs. CSKA: 81-71 (-10)

Laboral Kutxa: Causeur (15), Shengelia (11 + 6 rb), Hanga (10 + 4 rb + 2 bs), Bourousis (19 + 13 rb + 3 to), Blazic (3), Diop (4 + 3 rb + 4 pf), Tillie (4 + 5 rb), Adams (13 + 6 as + 3 st + 4 pf), Corbacho (2)…

CSKA: D.Kulagin (4 + 5 rb), Teodosic (18 + 3 rb + 7 as + 3 to + 4 pf), Fridzon (10), Jackson (4), Vorontsevich (8 + 4 pf), Higgins (10 + 3 rb + 3 to), Khryapa (6 + 6 rb), Kurbanov (5 rb), Hines (11 + 11 rb + 2 bs + 4 pf)…

Usually I start from congratulations to the winning team. But, with all respect to my colleagues, players and organization of Laboral Kutxa, I must say that it was not basketball but wrestling tonight. We talk every summer, what kind of contact is allowed, but in the end we see – and my colleague Perasovic said about it before the game with Olympiacos – that referees adjust to the level of physicality of one of the teams. I still don’t know, why I was called for a technical foul – nobody explained me. I can tell you, that I’ve just said: ‘Ref, please, lets clear the game and call all fouls!’ Please, don’t take me wrong: we want the basketball rules to be applied to all teams equally. And if Euroleague wants us all to play like this, we will be smarter, we will prepare the team to this kind of a game. As for tonight’s encounter, we were definitely out of shooting rhythm but we managed to keep up with Baskonia in this kind of game. Big three by Bouroussis and offensive rebound decided the outcome in the end, so I congratulate the hosts with the victory.