Jasikevicius: “We have to fight harder than we’ve ever fought before” 2

Zalgiris continues their preparations for game three of the EuroLeague Quarterfinals series against Fenerbahce.

While they put up a tremendous fight and got the win in the second game of the series, Sarunas Jasikevicius is sure that that’s not going to be enough moving forward.

“We understand how they’re going to attack us. They understand how we will attack them. We made mistakes, we didn’t foul at times. But we’ve got to come back to the fact that it’s never going to be perfect. It’s an opposition of the highest caliber. If it’s an ongoing series and you want to move forward, you’ve got to improve your level of play. What you showed before is never enough. The opponent understands us, adjusts. They’re very experienced.

Fenerbahce coach Zeljko Obradovic stated that after the blow-out game one, we’d see a whole different level of Zalgiris in the second game. Asked what could be expected from Fenerbahce after their first home loss, Jasikevicius explained that we’d see Fenerbahce basketball at it’s best.

“We’re looking forward to the best version of Fenerbahce. It’s not like they thought that we couldn’t play better. They knew that and they tried, but it is what it is. So we have to be prepared for a very aggressive Fenerbahce, very concentrated and perhaps with a new detail or two. I doubt either team will change things up drastically, but there will be minor changes, since we did have 3-4 days to look at things and decide. We’ll have to react to that, but nothing changes on our fire, our physicality. We have to fight harder than we’ve ever fought before.”

After holding a comfortable 15-point lead at the end of the third quarter, Zalgiris barely survived Fenerbahce’s route late in the game. However, Jasikevicius wasn’t overly worried about the team’s play.

“There were a lot of things that we can’t control. On the other hand, their physicality was impressive. We need to understand, that we have to be ready for their immediate reaction, just like they had in the fourth quarter. But we’ve also got to understand that we missed a couple open threes, free-throws. If we’re counting the one we wanted to miss, we probably missed five free-throw shots. A couple open threes. The most important thing for me is whether we create the chances, and if we don’t, how we solve the final 6-7 seconds of the game.”

Game 3 of the series against Fenerbahce tips off at 7:44 PM GMT+3 in a sold-out Zalgirio Arena.