Story about David Blatt’s triumphal comeback

Blatt Almighty

The match, which was going to be decisive (either UNICS scores its first points or finally goes deep into a sad phase where it won't be able to fight for the playoff again), was won by the Turkish champion Darüşşafaka that can be easily called the dark horse of this Euroleague. What should we be expecting David Blatt's team? Who creates the result in this team? What an ace up to its sleeve does it have? Without googling, everything brought to one answer – a typical team of the Russian national team's ex-coach. We know how he knows to make a team from not very bright performers as anybody else. Remembering the 2007, which was probably the best year in the 'new' history of basketball Russia, we can say for sure that his players always knew how to play the last fourth quarters, Holden will prove it. It is what Kazan was to be afraid of at the beginning of the Euroleague like a fire (funny as it might sound because of the fire in the sauna of Basket Hall).

In general, Evgeny Pashutin who worked with the Israeli specialist in the coaching staff knows Blatt's game better than any basketball fan. In the pre-match training on the eve of the game, Pashutin did not stint on bows to his vis-à-vis.

'Darüşşafaka has a very good team. Its coach is well known a person. David Blatt worked in the national team of Russia, NBA, Maccabi from Tel-Aviv. He is a very smart, crafty coach. His team has a long bench, many attacking players. He likes playing when his players expand the defence by shots,' told us the coach of UNICS.

'Darüşşafaka has a very good team. Its coach is well known a person,' told Pashutin at the pre-match training. Photo: unics.ru

But the coaching staff of the Kazan club had to immediately re-exam the foundation of the team's game during the last four days. The news about Coty Clarke's cruciate ligament micro rupture probably defused tension in the team because there were much worse expectations. The American is not a help for UNICS during the nearest month. It mixed Pashutin's cards. To give more playing time to Evgeny Voronov and Vadim Panin was the only logical decision. Was it an answer?

'Now we will give more playing time to Vadim Panin and Zhenya Voronov,' Pashutin told journalists. They are good at playing in defence. Their task will be to stop James Anderson and William Clyburn, other players of Darüşşafaka in their positions. They need to show their aggression, they are able to do that.'

Emergency impulsive start

Evgeny Pashutin kept his word. Panin played from the very kick-off. And the start was impulsive. It seemed everything they had planned worked. UNICS players had only three points in the first 2,5 minutes – three times 2+1, certainly earned a foul and direct three-pointer by Keith Langford. The powerful start gave a margin of 12 points against nil of the Turks. Anton Ponkrashov was generous about three-pointers – three times the ball found its target after his long shots.

All the results easily disappeared by the end of the quarter. The guests started to shoot three-pointers without mistakes by the middle of the match. Birkan Batuk and Brad Wanamaker were especially generous with long shots. As a result, the Turks reduced the margin in the first quarter to one point. And Panin had only one block.

After the match, the correspondent of Realnoe Vremya asked Pashutin to share his opinion about Vadim's game. In answer to it, the coach said he 'was great in defence, played confidently. We can say he was a decent substitution of Coty Clarke'.

UNICS extremely lacked a cool head to change the game and press its rival on his court. Photo: Ilnur Tukhbatov (tatar-inform.ru)

Leaping ahead, I would like to say that now the final score of the match doesn't agree with the coach of UNICS Evgeny Pashutin. To get almost 100 points in your basket is not a good defence. Very Vadim Panin said it later in the changing room.

'I think if we had won, we could estimate. But we lost, so I think I played bad,' he noted. 'It is difficult to enter the game without playing despite any physical readiness. We will try further.'

Standard loss of advantage

When two minutes left before the break, Parakhovsky got an ovation of 3,000 fans of Basket Hall with two blocked shots at once. Only a miss between the two miracle defensive shots impeded him from tagging this minute with his name. In total, Artyom put his 'wall' three times during the first half of the match. And a confident advantage that shrank to a poor excellence equal to one point maintained during the second quarter. They went to their changing rooms with 47-46.

The failed third quarter of this match was the main difference from the first Euroleague matches – 12-19 per quarter. A 6-point advantage that the guests got by the end of the penultimate quarter easily became -11 at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Minus Ponkrashov

Meanwhile, Anton Ponkrashov from UNICS who got a knee injury under his hoop left the court and was sitting near the stands with his T-shirt on his head for a long time – he had a tough day. A bit later his wife who wore the same T-shirt came to support him. Such a sweet moment, but it seems it doesn't save from the injury.

To reduce the margin to 5 points during 40 seconds before the final whistle and foul – is what Pashutin's players managed to do at the end. UNICS extremely lacked a cool head to change the game and press its rival on his court.

Choleric David Blatt became very kind and polite after the game. 'Hello, friends. I did not forget my Russian,' started Blatt in Russian but returned to English very soon. 'This victory is worthy of ten games. This Euroleague season is especial, unusual.'

Evgeny Pashutin – head coach of BC UNICS:

We are scoring more than we do. Now we have scored almost 90, while we have been scored 94. It means now our orientation is to score more. Yes, a beautiful game in attack is great. But it is necessary to defend because very good teams come. They all have 12 players, 5-6 Americans who are athletic and have fast feet. I can't say the guys did not fight. They wanted and fought. We lost opponents in some positions that I won't name. It is clear that it is Euroleague. But we should not give up but unite and improve the error correction.

What happened to Anton Ponkrashov? You don't have two key players. You don' t have Ponkrashov, Coty Clarke. What to do?

I can say nothing about Ponkrashov. He will have a magnetic resonance tomography in 10 minutes. I think Quim will rule the game (Author's Note: bows to Colom who was sitting near). He has played great today. He is playing better after each game. He played very well in Bamberg. We did not start well. God willing, Anton is fine. I hope he will return soon. Even if he misses the next game, Colom will be the main ball handler.

So it means you are not going to purchase a new player as it happens usually?

I can't say it at the moment. It is clear there is such a problem. But the club president Evgeny Bogachev makes the final decision.

Vadim Panin – defender BC UNICS:

We score enough points but have a weak defence, we lose 95 points. It is impossible to hope that you will score 100 or more points in every game. We must exam and watch, focus on the defence. We scored enough points in all the matches. We had about 80 points in Bamberg as well as here. This is why one can't lose 70 points in order to win. Of course, I understand all the teams are good here. And we need to focus on the defence. It is the problem. I can't say whether we play good or bad in attack. We score out points playing against any team – Darüşşafaka and Barcelona. We lose too much in defence.

Doesn't it seem there is a pressure of the third consecutive defeat?

No, there is no pressure. There is pressure when another team wins you easily. And we lost all our games because of the mistakes in defence, as I have said. For this reason, if we had defended a bit better, we could have won any team – Barça, Bamberg. But it is difficult to lose 95 points and hope that you will score 100.

Next time you will play against CSKA. CSKA in Russia is usually an insuperable team. How will you prepare for the cup owners?

In the last season, we also thought they were insuperable. But we managed to win a match in the final series. Nobody managed to do it in the playoff. Yes, there is no sense in bragging because, anyway, we lost that series. But I think we played that series quite well. I hope we will do the same now.