Sarunas Jasikevicius: 'Every title is won by sweating blood' / News - Basketnews.com

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Sarunas Jasikevicius outplayed Pablo Laso at the Copa del Rey for the second year in a row, as his FC Barcelona beat Real Madrid in the tournament final.

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"I wanted to congratulate our players. And also to our fans. I have never seen so many of them at the Spanish Cup. This is very important for our club, that people travel with us and support us."

"We've been preparing for this game, but sometimes it's not easy. We came out a little bit in shock. It was like a EuroLeague defense, always changing, putting a big player on our point guard. At some point maybe I didn't prepare the team well. We have to be proud of the team's reaction and how we suffered. We lacked energy."

"Our defense was great. We left Madrid with very few points and low percentages. 10, 17, 13. These are great defensive numbers in each quarter. We wanted to win like that, suffering, trying to change the game. In the second half, we did a great job on offense. We have to celebrate this title."

Saras admitted that he was concerned with his team after they scored just 18 points in the first half. However, Barcelona found a spark in the second half and changed the game.

"I was very worried about the team's state of mind. The players' faces. The result during the match is not so important. I saw the team very lonely, nobody was talking on the bench or on the court. The point guards didn't listen to me. We were very cold. We needed a spark and we found it in the second half."

"Every title is won by sweating blood. It's an incredible job. Every 24 hours is a new story with a lot of emotions. It's very difficult to win titles. Hats off to the guys."

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