Reporting from Kaunas
Hedgeout.net and Yiannis Bouranis spoke with Adam Hanga a few hours before the Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona in the EuroLeague Final Four.
The Hungarian guard/forward named ’50-50 balls’ and ‘rebounding’ as keys to the game, while he expects the “Whites” to cover the absences of big men Gabriel Deck, Guerschon Yabusele and Vincent Poirier, who are out due to injuries and suspensions.
At the same, Adam Hanga referred to the playoff series with Partizan and everything that happened from Game 2 onwards, but noted that even though this situation helped his team mentally, it now belongs to the past.
Here is what Adam Hanga said in his chat with Hedgeout.net on Thursday night after Real Madrid’s final practice:
On the Clasico with Barcelona: “Obviously, another Clasico, a big thing, always a big fight, 50-50 balls are always key, last game they grabbed a lot of offensive rebounds, so we have to stop that, everybody has the desire to win this game, it’s one game, everybody knows the Final Four is a big game, so let’s hope for the best, let’s give our best, and hopefully we will win.”
On playing without 3 key players: “We used to playing like this during the regular season, players comig in, players going out due to inujuries, I don’t think there was a moment during the season when we had a full roster available. Obviously, they are key players, but we are used to it and we are trying to cover them with the players we have.”
On the series with Partizan and how it helped his team become stronger mentally: “Obviously, it is better tha losing, it helped us get to the Final Four. Now, it’s another game, another competition.
“It helped us mentally especially after what happened in Game 2, we went to Belgrade, playing twice in one of the toughest arenas, obviously it helped us a lot and then what happened in Game 5, coming back from that big margin.
“Maybe we had to lose these two games to understand how good of a team we are, and then get back to the basic and do what we could to come back. It helped us get to Final Four and that’s the end of the story.
This will be the 34th time Barcelona and Real Madrid will face each other in the EuroLeague this century. The Catalans lead the series vs the “Whites” 17-16.
