Ciao to all of you Turkish Airlines Euroleague fans out there! Once again, this is Andrea Cinciarini, playmaker of Bennet Cantu, and this week I would like to talk with you about our Top 16 so far! With two games still to play, we remain alive in the fight to get a berth in the playoffs, but we lost a very important game in Tel Aviv last week. The two consecutive games with Maccabi, the first at home a week earlier, have been really emotional and played like finals.
The atmosphere at Paladesio for the first game was incredible. It was sold out, of course, and the fans were chanting from 30 minutes before the tipoff. They pushed us to the win. Our team was one with the arena and the people. This was our main strength, and together with a great job done by the team, we earned an amazing victory against one of the top European teams.
But in Israel the music was different. After we were leading at the end of the first half by 2 points, in the last 20 minutes, Maccabi's experience and its fans made the difference. We were not able to resist their enthusiasm and their rally. In the end, we not only lost the game, but in doing so by more points than we beat them, we also lost the head-to-head tie-break advantage in the case that we should tie directly with Maccabi.
Now, our next game against Barcelona is a classic matchup in which everyone on our team will have to play at his best. That's what it will take to try to win against this big team and hope to continue our incredible run in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague. It will be quite a challenge to play this game, as only a victory will count for us to enter among the top eight teams in the Euroleague. But to be on our home court, in front of our fans, gives us more confidence and will push us to play the perfect game.
We know it won't be easy because Barcelona is still unbeaten in the Top 16. We also know that they played many, many games like this with the many top-level players their team has. But every challenge has a different story and a different taste. The game is still 40 minutes long and we'll play five-on-five, as always.
So to finish, I would like to tell to all the Cantu fans that it is fantastic to have a dream and, especially, that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!
All the way! FORZA CANTU!
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DATE:
Wednesday, February 15, 2012