Tomas Satoransky, Barcelona: 'Defense won the game for us'
Saras Jasikevicius, FC Barcelona head coach
"I thought that we moved the ball a lot [in the third quarter]. Obviously, if you hit shots, it's a whole different ballgame, but I thought we moved the ball side to side, we didn’t stop. At the beginning, maybe we focused on the mismatches – the post there, the post there. It worked out, but basketball is always better when you move the ball side to side. In general, I'm very happy with the team's maturity. It would have been very easy for the team to look past Zalgiris after the very strong first game, which we won so easily, but the players understood that the second game would be different and the players understood [what to expect] coming in here. We weren’t brilliant today, but the guys were fighting, they really wanted it, they were crazy about closing the series and then, like you said, in the second half we started playing much better basketball.
(About playing the Final Four in his hometown of Kaunas): "It sounds good. This is where we wanted to be. Hopefully we want to give some guys some days to recover and maybe even work a bit physically to come in better shape in the Final Four. This is it, we're happy to be there.
"Congratulations to our players and our fans for this win. Obviously for the qualification to the Final Four, it's a great win for us. I would also like to congratulate Zalgiris on an incredible season. I'm happy, very happy talking about the game. It's more or less like we expected: a lot of nervousness by the two teams at the beginning, then much better basketball by us in the second half."
Kazys Maksvytis, Zalgiris Kaunas head coach
"They were simply too strong for us. First of all, we lost our game pace, our physicality a little bit and it cost us this win. Barca won three games, so they deserve to go to the Final Four. We hope that they win the EuroLeague. Of course, when you are losing a couple of the last games, it's different, but it was an amazing season with amazing fans, with an amazing team, with amazing players, with fighting players, and I hope next season that we will bring this experience and be better."
Jan Vesely, FC Barcelona center
"I think we took care of the ball a little bit more [in the second half], we fought a little bit harder than in the first half. Congrats to Zalgiris on this amazing season, they proved that they belong in the top eight. They were fighting like crazy in every game during the whole season and they showed it in this series, so congratulations to them. I just want to say one thing, also: all my prayers go to Belgrade for the victims and all the people that were affected by the shooting today in Belgrade, so my prayers go to them."
Tomas Satoransky, FC Barcelona guard
"Well, we definitely improved our game [in the second half], especially offensively. It was a fight – this series, this game. I have a lot of respect for Zalgiris, what they accomplished, how they fought throughout the season, and I think we respected them well enough to be their equal in terms of intensity. In the second half, obviously, we started well from the three-point line. I felt like I had it going, so I tried to take a little bit more responsibility and hopefully that helped the team. I think we were just more solid [down the stretch]. We knew that they were always in the game, they would try to throw everything at us. They ran some fastbreaks, they had some easy points, and I think we handled their pressure and created some open shots. I think defense actually won the game at the end for us.
(On reaching the Final Four): "That sounds awesome. It's my first Final Four, it's why I came to Barcelona – to fight for the EuroLeague trophy. We have a lot of days to prepare, we have some more games in the ACB League in Spain, so yeah, [I'm] very excited, also to close out the series and get some rest. Like I told you, it seems like it was 3-0, but it was a very well-fought series from Zalgiris."