Real Madrid Head Coach Sergio Scariolo shares his thoughts about Real’s regular season and tactical adjustments before the Euroleague Final Four.
What’s your assessment of the regular season? How did this go for you?
It went great. It went great, indeed. I mean, we worked with a brand with new team, brand new coach, brand new front office, brand new coaching staff. We, you know, took some sensible time to adjust, but from November onwards we got a pace which was solid, consistent, progressive and in the last few months we were consistently in the top four. We ended in the top four and we confirmed it through the playoffs. So honestly, we are very happy about how things went so far. Obviously, we are not happy about the two big injuries we had in the last few weeks.
Of course we will discuss your injury crisis, but before I do that, could you shed some light on such a disproportion of your domestic form where you are almost unbeatable at home and your away form which was far more shaky?
Well, I wouldn’t emphasize that much this aspect because it’s completely basically unique that the team can have a level of performance this high at home. And at the same time, we had to recognize that a few games at home were, you know, won by the last shot or shots in the last seconds of the game, equal games, which could have ended the other way easily. And same wise on the road.
Absolutely, Panathinaikos, for instance.
Yeah, for example, Panathinaikos, Zalgiris. Four or five game which could have easily ended up our way, and they didn’t so obviously the numbers are there but honestly, I don’t think this is really a significant difference. Obviously, you play on the road against great teams and great teams, which are basically 80% of Euroleague participants at home are really strong and it’s extremally difficult to beat them at home.
We cannot escape your injury situation among inside players. So how do you see that? Is that going to be some reverse psychology that now when everything is against you and players will play 120% of their capacity and perform real miracles on the court?
Well, I wouldn’t call it reverse psychology. The thing is that we will miss our big man, especially Edy Tavares, big time. He was the pillar of the team, the guy around which the whole team was built. So now we are, and we found an adjustment during the playoffs.
Yeah, when Edy was already injured Alex Len was doing a very good job defensively. Now we have lost him as well.
The new change is drastic because we are moving from being a team with a paint protector, ring protector, an anchor inside to a team which needs to be much more effective in preventing the ball going inside. Sometimes we were inviting the ball. to get into our paint because we wanted our opponent to be crushed on Tavares. Now we don’t have Tavares anymore, so we had to do exactly the opposite, try to prevent the ball from getting into our paint. And then there is the rebounding issue, which is everybody’s responsibility. So, everybody needs to commit a little bit more.
Many thanks and all the best in Final Four
