Kruno Simon: 'We haven't played our best game yet, many teams won't be happy to face us' / News - Basketnews.com

Croatia finished Group C with a win against Ukraine and the third place. The veteran of the group, Kruno Simon, is convinced that the team hasn't played at their full level yet and that other teams in Berlin should be concerned about this

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Croatia finished their experience in Group C of EuroBasket with a 90-85 win against Ukraine and third place in the final ranking.

Croatia, in fact, would have needed at least an eight-point margin to secure second place in the group but that didn't happen unfortunately for them. Ukraine, once again, put up a real fight and was able to maintain second place in the group.

Kruno Simon, the veteran of the Croatian national team, provided some clutch plays down the stretch and finished the game with 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists.

After the game, Simon stopped with the reporters and explained that, according to him, we haven't seen the best Croatia yet in this tournament.

"We're happy for the third place but we're also aware that there's much more to show", Simon told BasketNews. "I think we haven't played our best games here and if we play at our best, I believe that many teams won't be happy to play against us".

Simon praised the defensive effort of the team as the key to winning the game against Ukraine in the end.

"I think our defense really made the difference in the end", Simon explained. "We started to put more pressure on the ball, we took some rhythm out of them. Of course, we knew that they're a good team but we also knew that Mykhailiuk is their best player so we tried to limit him as much as possible".

Despite not being able to get second place in the group, Simon doesn't have a lot of regrets about that possibility, as he explained to BasketNews.

"Of course, there's a little of disappointment about that, but you know what? If you want to win something important, you have to beat the big teams", Simon told BasketNews. "So for me, it doesn't matter if we play against those teams now or in the semifinals, if we want to achieve something important, we have to play against them and beat them".

"In Berlin, there's gonna be 16 great teams, and you have to win four games if you want to go all the way, so the order doesn't really matter", Simon continued. "If you want to win, you cannot focus too much on things like these".

The two-time EuroLeague champion will now enjoy a little bit of rest before playing in the round of 16, something that is definitely gonna help Simon and his teammates.

"Especially for me resting it's a key. I'm 37 years old so it becomes much more difficult every day to sustain this kind of tempo", Simon said. "But you know, this is EuroBasket, so we need to find the energies to push a little bit more in order to advance".

Croatia finished Group C with a record of 3 wins and 2 losses and will now wait to see which team they have to face in the round of 16 in Berlin.

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