Bilbao with PAOK in the first final

With two significant absences the Bilbao Wednesday (21:00) in the first FIBA ​​Europe Cup final against PAOK. Both the Icelandic center Tirgvi Hlinasson is out of the battle because of the discomfort and the Spanish forward Chavi Rabassa, due to intense unwell.

“It continues to have dizziness and severe discomfort, we cannot count on it. Racing, lately we have not used him as much as he deserves and as much as he would like, but he always showed incredible dedication to the team. He’s misleading because he wanted to be with us. We will try to see if he can recover and be at least here“, Bilbao’s coach emphasized, we are zero -zealous for Rabassa.

As for tomorrow’s race, the Basque technician said: “The philosophy I try to go through is to live every possession. The final is every possession, because each of them is decisive. If it were a series or a tennis race, you may lose a set of 6-0 and the next one start from scratch. Here’s no. It doesn’t matter if we play inside or away, or if the start is delayed because they throw papers. We have to focus on each possession. And if we are in a difficult time, to live it as a team, to endure, to answer, to find a way to recover and to the next to give 100% again”

Referring to PAOK, he said: ‘Due to the importance of the race, there is an extra load of emotion and we need to use it positively. We have to pump and adrenaline from it, but without losing the concentration. The next race does not start from scratch, you need to know how to manage the difficult time, whether it comes here or in Thessaloniki. Do not negatively affect you so that you can continue to work and find the moment to hit the race. We want to win the final, but we have to look out for what to do. PAOK is a very running team, I think it is the team that plays the most surprises in Greece. It risks and is not the most effective, but it wants to play like that. She is trying to distract you and move you to create good situations one by one for her regional players. It uses a lot of shorts among short players, many misleading exterior movements, talls penetrating because their shorts make them scorn, exterior playing with the basket … We have to run very well in the defense so as not to surprise us. Another important factor is the dynamics of their tall, it is very difficult to mark them and they also have great ability in aggressive rebound”

And concluded: ‘Beyond the epic dimension of the last two knockouts, the three-point second in Bursa and the overthrow against Dijon, was a road full of demands. We wanted to play in this event. Unlike other ACB teams that if they do not qualify for the BCL, they give up the FIBA ​​Europe Cup, we wanted to play it. This meant perseverance, a risks at some point for the team to grow, so that players who finally helped us … all this to get to the most important prize we can have: recognition. Tickets are exhausted, more people from any other time of the season want to live this final with us. This is the greatest recognition. It fills us with pride, excitement and responsibility“