TJ Parker after Asvel’s defeat against Monaco: “There is anger…”
TJ Parker (coach of Asvel, beaten by Monaco): “You don’t start a final like this. The start of the match, it was not our team. Are these the eight days without competition? We can’t take 29 points in a first quarter, it’s way too many. The rebound? This is one of the first things we talked about. You have to work with your player, especially since they are more athletic on position 4. So you have to make the effort differently.
We got back to six points at the start of the third quarter but misused the fouls. There are things you have to do in the final, it’s called sacrifices. And we didn’t. There is anger, of course. We played well in the basket after the quarters against Cholet, then against Dijon. It was defensively that we made the difference. We know. You can’t concede 29 points in a single quarter against a team as talented as Monaco, even if they put in some very difficult shots. We are going to straighten the shot”.
“We let them unroll their basket”
Youssoupha waterfall (Asvel): “We knew it would be a tough game but we made it tough because we were too soft. The rebound was one of the most important points. The coach had insisted on this point before the meeting, he had prepared us for this. We have failed on this point, clearly. We haven’t been good at it. We let them unroll their basket. We made them strong. This is the problem we encountered in this first game and we will try to rectify it. It’s more a question of mentality, of being as tough as possible and being 100%. We have twelve operational players.