Flamengo beat Botafogo 88-69 on Tuesday night (25) and took the lead in the final of the Rio de Janeiro Basketball Championship. After the match, Deryk Ramos, David Nesbitt, Anderson Varejão and Gustavinho spoke exclusively to FlaTV at Tijuca Tênis Clube and discussed the important victory in the classic.

"This first game was worthy of a final. These are two teams that really want to win. Flamengo handled the situation very well and set a strong pace on defense. That's why they won. We were expecting an intense game like it was. All the players really wanted to win, sometimes going too far. For the next game, we need to expect more from that. But we'll be ready," said Deryk.

One of the best players in the first game of the final was David Nesbitt, who had 12 points and 8 rebounds. "It's the first game of the Finals, and well, it's the Finals. This is playoff basketball, and you can expect everyone to come out here fighting. They want to win as much as we do, so they'll come out strong every game. We expect a similar performance on Thursday. We have some veterans, which is great. We'll stay focused and try to close out the series," the player commented.

"We started the game well in the first quarter and managed to open up a good lead, with a 20-point margin. We went into halftime with a comfortable victory. They came back in the third quarter, and it's thanks to them, they came back for it. They defended well, they were quick, and the balls started falling. However, the most important thing is that we stayed calm and managed to win this first match," analyzed Anderson Varejão.

"We had some unusual moments in Tijuca. We managed to open up a 22-point lead in the first half, which isn't normal between Flamengo and Botafogo, not even in a championship final. Then they brought it down to just five points at the start of the fourth quarter. I have to highlight the cool head and grit we had to get out of a difficult situation. We managed to recover in the final quarter, which is difficult in basketball. We were emotionally affected, but we managed to stay calm enough to open up a good lead and win the game," Gustavinho added.

The Mais Querido returns to the court on Thursday (27), at 20 pm, when it goes to General Severiano for the second duel of the final against Botafogo. The match will have a single black and white crowd.