Dusan Ivkovic: “We experienced physical and mental exhaustion in the critical moments...”

Defeated by Real Madrid 76-63 in the fourth match of the Euroleague play-off round and eliminated from the Euroleague, Anadolu Efes coach Dusan Ivkovic stated his thoughts at the post-game press conference:

“First of all, the better team advanced to the Final Four. I would like to congratulate Real Madrid. We fought well in the first half, keeping everything under control. However, in the second half, we displayed an unexpectedly awful performance, being able to score only 24 points throughout the half. Real Madrid is a very experienced team. We had 18 turnovers today, which means they had 18 more possessions than us. They outperformed us in offensive rebounds by four, and they were very accurate in three pointers from downtown. We really wanted to win the match, and also the series, but we were not sufficient on offense. We experienced physical and mental exhaustion in the critical moments. The series was concluded in four matches. We fought, and we also made mistakes. We have to learn to play against experienced teams like Real Madrid. There are lots of lessons and experiences to be learnt from this series. We will now be back at the Turkish League. We have four matches ahead to finish the regular season, and we will play against Fenerbahçe on Sunday. The time is short, but we have to recover as quick as possible and keep working...”

Tags:
  • real madrid
  • Dusan Ivkovic