Tomic convinced that FC Barcelona can still win the final

Ante Tomic has spoken to the media the morning after losing game one of the best-of-five ACB Final against Real Madrid. “I’m sure we can still win this” he said. “That’s why we’re here. We’ll try to tie the series. Games like these are decided by tiny details and we’ve lost a lot of games this season in the final seconds, so there are clearly things we need to improve”.

“I wasn’t happy with my own game” said the Croat, who only scored two points on Friday. “I think it was my worst game of the season. I’ll try to do better on Sunday, but getting two fouls so early on made it hard for me to get into the game. I have to play better and be cleverer”.

Looking ahead to the game that starts in Madrid at 12.30pm CET, Tomic added that “we have got to cut down on defensive errors. We have spoken today about what we need to do in game two. We have to be more aggressive and intense in defence and more accurate in offence”.

Tibor Pleiss

“We have to be more aggressive all round. We made too many defensive errors and they were scoring threes far too easily. We have to work on that for Sunday”.

“The worst thing about the game was that we lost but we were still in with a chance in the final minutes. But we wasted that opportunity and that’s why we lost”.

“It is hard to say why we didn’t take advantage of the final minutes but we didn’t capture rebounds and Madrid got two great chances to score. All we can do on Sunday is win”.

“We have to show people on Sunday that we want to win this league. We need to put more energy into it, be more aggressive and make the whole season good. We didn’t come here to lose, we want to go back home with the series tied at 1-1”.

Bostjan Nachbar

“It will be a hard game, but we’ve analysed our mistakes and where we need to improve. We’re all convinced that we can win here in Madrid”.

“Xavi wants more communication in defence, especially when the game demands it. We know what we have to do and we’ll put it into practice on Sunday”.

“It’s not easy to stop Felipe Reyes, he’s very strong on the paint. All I can do is fight for every ball and every possession and try to make it hard for him”.

“Mario didn’t surprise me. He’s a very energetic lad and he’s able to carry the team on his back and that helps us a lot. I’m very pleased for him, but we can’t afford to rely only on Mario, the team has to work together”.