“They will fight for the play-offs”: again no victory, but words of praise for Alba Berlin

Israel Gonzalez jumped off and raised both arms in the air. Shortly before the end of the game against the big FC Barcelona, ​​Tamir Blatt had hit a three-pointer with the end of the attack time and brought Alba very close again. Emotional outbursts are rare for the Spanish coach of the Berliners and his leap of joy clearly showed how great the longing for success in the Euroleague has become.

But the cheering quickly died down. Because the throw came a fraction of a second too late, the points were withdrawn after consulting the video evidence – and Alba lost again despite a very good performance over long stretches. So Gonzalez sat a few minutes later at the press conference and once again tried to explain the eighth defeat on the international stage in a row. “When you are in a difficult moment, you also lack luck,” said the Spaniard.

He received encouragement from his colleague. Barcelona coach Sarunas Jasikevicius had words of praise for Alba after his team’s hard-fought 88-86 victory. “They have to get out of this valley and I think they can win a few games in the next few weeks,” said the Lithuanian. “They are ready to take the next step and will fight for the play-offs.”

Alba is currently a long way from that with three wins from eleven games and nice words from the opponent only help to a limited extent in a negative phase. But the Berliners can build on their performance against what is perhaps the best team in Europe.

“We could have lost by 20 or 30 points when Barcelona had their run in the third quarter,” said Jaleen Smith. But his team didn’t let their heads hang and even had the chance of extra time in the final minute. “If we keep playing like this, we’ll get wins again quickly,” said Smith. Preferably on Sunday (8.30 p.m., Magentasport) when Alba competes in the quarter-finals of the cup at BG Göttingen.

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