Valencia Basket- Hiopos Lleida post-game quotes: Pedro Martínez

"I prefer to think that we played knowing that Lleida has some very obvious strengths. They are a very tough team, very fast, they defend very well, and they shoot very well from three-point range, as they showed today, shooting a lot and with a very good percentage. Although we had talked about it, we weren’t able to do very well there, or rather, despite what we had discussed, they continued doing it very well because they are a very good team that is very well coached and have very clear priorities, which gives them an identity. You have to respect teams with an identity, like Lleida. So, I think that the most important thing here is not so much waiting for the right moment, but having the utmost respect because the opponent is going to do things well, as they did today, and we had discussed it in detail. I was congratulating my assistants, telling them that our preparation was perfect, but it didn’t go very well for us. Still, nothing surprised us, we knew they were going to play that way, and despite that, we weren't able to neutralize them, which could either mean we did a poor job or that these guys are really good at what they do. In other aspects, we are better, as we have shown. The important thing is the mentality we had, with maximum respect, saying that we can’t avoid them shooting with a good percentage, but we will continue doing our best, not getting too nervous, and in the moments they had good stretches, we needed to tighten up. That’s what I highlight about the team, because if you start by not respecting the opponent, by underestimating them a little, you get frustrated when you can’t stop the things you talked about, and you end up with a real mess. And then, the other team sees your face and grows. I think that what they saw on our faces at all times was that, well, you’re playing really well, scoring a lot, but you’re not surprising us, so to speak. We’re going to play, we accept the challenge, and we’ll play the game against you knowing you’re good at that, and we’re good at other things, which we showed. In the end, we win the game, and that’s it. We’re happy, but we also congratulate the opponent for how they did things, because they really did it well."