"I am not very surprised we lost because I believe that playing this kind of game, you need something else and we could not bring out as individuals or as a team the plusses we needed.

As I said before getting here, going back to this scenario was the most relevant and we came with great expectations, but I believe that we have to learn from this. This game is history and just a lesson to learn from and I hope that my team and my players will learn from this experience. And on Sunday we have to play hard because going home with a victory is very important for us. I want to congratulate Maccabi because their second half was very good. They took off their press and were able to use their forwards to create. Their scoring really made the difference.

"When I say learning from this, I mean the way to control your emotions, your feelings. When I say mastering your emotions, I don’t mean just why at the beginning of the game we missed many simple shots, but also that the plan for the game has to be respected mentally throughout the game. And these kinds of things you learn from and then you work on them day after day in practice and this is relevant. Something else we have to learn is that many of the games you don’t win because you have talent, which I believe we have, but you win them because you understand. In the second half Maccabi increased its physical play. They thought we caused trouble, so they pressed and got shots in the paint. And we could not respond. But I want to look on the bright side, If you don’t play these kinds of games, you can’t win. Obviously I am not happy with the defeat, we lost an opportunity here – with all due respect to Maccabi. I hope if we are able to learn, we will have more chances to play in these games.

"If you look at the game between Siena and Panathinaikos, the first thing I can think of is that this is a man’s game and we are playing with kids. It’s not only your body and strength. There is a difference. We have 23, 24 year olds, but it’s also the kind of game we play. That’s just the way it is.

"When I say we have to read the game, [Maccabi’s fourth quarter start] is what I mean. We make a great effort and catch up, just 2 points down. The effort was done by five players. And when I start moving players, a team knows they have to close things up. And we didn’t.

We allowed Pargo to score and Schortsanitis to score and they were lucky with shots by Eidson, but this play in the paint, particularly when players come off the bench, we have to stop it. We have to understand how to stop your opponent. With the talent we have, if we are not able to stop opponents on defense, our talent is not enough. If we could have stopped them, then anxiety comes in. But given that we are playing with players from the bench, the first thing is to stop the opponent. We could have created doubts for Maccabi, but weren’t able. Then they hit three-point shots and that’s why the game ends like that, because we couldn’t conclude."