Barça He wants to continue growing and extending the good moment the team is going through. This Tuesday (9pm CET), Xavi Pascual and his players They will seek the eleventh continental victory of the season against a Paris Basketball in low times, with four consecutive defeats in the Euroleague, but always dangerous at home.
The Barcelona team accumulates six consecutive victories between the European competition and the Endesa League, and the objective is none other than to continue increasing the number of victories in both competitions to continue climbing towards the front positions of the table, especially in a ACB in which they are sevenths.
But before returning to the league championship, Barça practically reaches the halfway point of a frenetic calendar with matches every 48 hours that test the resistance of the Catalan team. Before traveling to the French capital, both Xavi Pascual as Kevin Punter They took the floor to review the current moment of the team, but above all, warning of the difficulties that await them against the team. Francesco Tabellini.
Will Clyburn continues to show that he is one of Barça's great offensive references / Dani Barbeito
The keys to follow to beat Paris
They put a lot of rhythm, it is a team that plays very well in the first seconds and they have a lot of scoring. Normally, in games against them, the number of possessions is very high. Therefore, It is a game in which, beyond the fact that we can counteract a little defensively, above all, we have to play well in attack, because if we want to win we will have to score. We have to be clear about this. Then, also controlling the rebound, it is a team that is very good at rebounding, that puts pressure on the entire court, which causes that constant acceleration of the tempo. And we, with the schedule we have, cannot play a game just back and forth, but we will have to control the pace a little throughout the match.
Problems with injuries
Mentally, the team is strong, we do not look for excuses for anything, and those of us who are there will try to be at our best to win the game. As we saw in the last game in Manresa, the problems we already had, which were very big, are added to Vesely's problem, which we will see how it is. But it doesn't matter, in the end we have to be prepared to play a good game there, a very physical game, with a lot of pace and that will demand a lot from us. This schedule puts a lot of pressure on us with these four games in eight days.
Xavi Pascual, Barça coach / Dani Barbeito
The team is moving on the right path
I think we have played the last four games very well, regardless of Asvel or Gran Canaria, we got them through, but the last four have been very good and we have to continue. It is not that it has only just begun, but it is true that it is quite a process and that there is a long road ahead, and we have to continue. Now we have closed this week, we open a new one, but the problem is all this: Maybe in this last game we had to give some players a lot of minutes, because the truth is that it was difficult to manage the minutes, but we got through it and now we have to think about the next one. The feelings are good, but we have to continue.
Match – Training – Match…
Yes, there is time to train, but you have to train in a different way. In the end there is a whole part of recovery and injury prevention, and another part in which we have to prepare well for the game at a tactical level in a short time. What we have tried is that, in this period in which we have been able to train more, push a lot on a mental, physical and tactical level to be prepared to be able to prepare for matches like these in 48 hours.
Xavi Pascual always demands the maximum from his players / Dani Barbeito
Punter: “It will be a tough game away from home”
They play very, very fast, they are a team with talent on their court. So we are going to have to, like in the last games, arrive, be mentally focused, prepared, and try to play a tough game away from home. We go game by game. Tomorrow is Paris, so just focus on Paris, focus on its strengths and weaknesses, and keep taking it day by day and game by game.
The team's improvement in defense
We've been playing defensively, we've done our job. So, as the results show, I just want to keep doing that. I think we are doing pretty good things on both sides of the court, on offense and defense. So I just want to keep building, looking for areas to improve. Even when we win by a lot, you always want to look for areas to improve and grow, and take it game by game.
Kevin Punter finished with a dunk in the brilliant Euroleague victory against Olympiacos / Dani Barbeito
The relationship with Xavi Pascual
Yes, I played against him when I was in Milan. He was at Zenit. So I'm familiar with him, with his players, and his team has always been tough. But everything has gone well, as everyone can see. Just stay in the moment, enjoy everything, take it game by game and keep going.
