The victory against Le Mans will be a “must” for Aris in tomorrow’s clash for the Game 2 of the Eurocup “Last 16”, David Blatt told the Press.
“Home games are critical in this competition and especially in this phase. We must win this game. Le Mans had an excellent first round in the Eurocup and has also had great results in the French League, being the leading team right now. We haven’t got much time to prepare this match and that’s a big challenge we’ll have to meet”, the American-Israeli coach said, before commenting on the things he’d like to see his players keep from the game against Olympiacos:
“Yesterday was yesterday and we need to think about tomorrow. Obviously the most important for us tomorrow will be the result. Against Olympiacos we needed to address the beginning of the games we’d been having -and we did. We played really hard and we played to win, we just fell short. I’d like to see that change against Le Mans”.
Moreover, when asked about the “ritual” of clapping in the beginning of every training session, mr. Blatt explained: “One of the fundamentals of my philosophy regarding basketball is to have fun. If you can’t have fun and be happy of what you’re doing, you might as well go and play tennis! Honestly, every time we have practice or every time we have a game, we ought to be clapping, because we are the luckiest guys in the world to be able to do this”.
Aaron Miles also spoke about the upcoming match: “It’s going to be a tough game. Le Mansisa good team, with good players. They have a different style of playing basketball, which is typical of many French teams.Our coaching staff is preparing us this game and I think we’ll be ready. Le Mans has changed since the time I was playing in the French League for Pau-Orthez, but I can say that it’s a very athletic team, which tries to run and to jump for the rebounds in offense”.
The American point guard also highlighted the importance of winning this match: “We have to win, in order to have better chances to get to the next round of the Eurocup. We are preparing ourselves mentally for this game and tomorrow we must go out and give all we got for the victory”.
