“The most beautiful thing has been to finish with victory on my return to the Palau. The reception from the public has been frankly beautiful; I have always been very grateful to the fans because, in my previous stage, they were always on my side. But in the end the sensations end in the initial jump and the objective is to win. Closing this return with victory makes me frankly happy,” he explained at a press conference.
Pascual highlighted that the team still has a large room for improvement but is moving in the right direction. “It is a game that shows that we still have a lot to improve. Offensively we are far from a ‘top’ level in the Euroleague, but we are making steps and we are getting better every day. We have committed many silly fouls in the first minutes, too much,” he lamented.
“It was also difficult for us to enter the third quarter and we had difficulties holding up some one-on-ones, but in the end we raised the physical level and the intensity,” he analyzed in this sense. “We have achieved some easy points in transition that have given us an important advantage for the end. We are doing many things well, but small details are penalizing us,” he commented.
The coach insisted on collective ambition as the basis of progress. “I agree that we want to win. We want to win every game and we are together; everyone contributes. We are all on the same page to reach an optimal level of competition. We are taking steps and all the players are being important,” he assured.
Pascual also had words for Tornike Shengelia, one of the party’s highlights. “Shengelia is a player dedicated to his team and his country. He has incredible value and we can only support him. He is a key player for us,” he said.
In addition, he highlighted the role of Myles Cale coming off the bench. “Cale is a Euroleague player, very useful due to his profile, and there are not many like him. He is always willing to add from the bench and today he has helped us a lot,” he noted.
Finally, he stressed his satisfaction with the team’s upward trend. “The team is growing. We are working very well and every day we are getting better in training. We have been better in transitions, more united, more loose in attack, although we started by missing all the open shots. We have known how to win by trailing and we are on the right path, but we still have a lot to improve,” he concluded.