Petar Bozic is aware his men face a stern test of their credentials in the quarterfinals
London Lions face moment of truth in Cluj after big win over Turk Telekom
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The London Lions are one game away from reaching the BKT EuroCup last four after an emphatic 100-77 home win over Turk Telekom Ankara in the quarterfinals, but their head coach Petar Bozic has urged his players to keep their feet on the ground ahead of next week’s tricky trip to Romania.
The Lions face a one-and-done quarterfinal road game against U-BT Cluj-Napoca in front of what will certainly be a raucous home crowd, an environment London has thrived in this season. London has an 8-1 road record this term, with its solitary defeat coming at the hands of Group A winner Paris Basketball which booked an automatic last-eight spot.
Paris and London, a couple of emerging cities on Europe’s basketball map, could meet in the best-of-three semifinals, but Bozic will surely tell his Lions squad to be fully focused on the tough task ahead when they cross paths with Cluj.
“It’s a big challenge ahead of us because they are a great team on their home court, so we’ll have to keep the same level of aggressiveness, physicality and unselfishness that we had tonight,” Bozic told the post-game press conference after seeing his outfit blow away Turk Telekom.
London dominated on the interior
London broke the club’s record for most points in a half when it poured in 60 in the opening period against Turk Telekom, shooting a staggering 19-of-23 from inside the arc and 4-of-8 from downtown. Bozic was purring with delight and pointed out that that his team had stuck with a winning strategy that bore so much fruit this season.
“We scored most of the points from the paint in the first half – our pace was great and that’s something we’ve been doing throughout the season,” said the 45-year-old Serbian tactician. “We were decisive on the pick and roll and also very active on the offensive boards, which gave us extra possessions and hence we were very efficient offensively.”
Asked to elaborate on the domination of Gabe Olaseni and Josh Sharma against their Turk Telekom rivals, Bozic highlighted it was business as usual for the two big men after they made their athleticism count.
“There’s a lot of things we’ve been working on since the beginning of the season, like setting the screens and reading the defense,” Bozic commented. “We’ve been preaching that all season and they got their reward.”
A tough challenge awaits
Cluj, which has won eight Romanian League titles including the last three, finished the regular season as the Group B runner-up with a 13-5 record, having gone an impressive 7-2 at home. That clinched the team a bye in the eighthfinals and hence Cluj will likely head into the game against London confident it can go at least a step further.
However, Cluj will take nothing for granted against Bozic’s high-flying unit which proved its worth against top-quality opposition, meaning that a spectacular clash is on the cards when the two teams meet in search of a semifinal spot.