Fla forgets refereeing and wants to use experience to win
If they beat Brasília this Sunday, Rubro-negro could decide the NBB final at home
By press office - in
The loss to Brasília in the second game of the Novo Basquete Brasil finals is now a thing of the past. With the best-of-five series tied at 1-1, Flamengo's players know that a victory this Sunday at 11:30 a.m. at the Nilson Nelson Gymnasium will give coach Paulo Chupeta's team the edge in deciding the title next Thursday, June 3, in Rio de Janeiro. But to do so, everyone recognizes that the team must use all its experience and ignore any provocation from its opponent.
Marcelinho, the top scorer in the second match with 41 points, once again complained about the refereeing, especially regarding a decision. According to the red-and-black captain, in a match with so much contact and a close contest between two such evenly matched teams, there was a lack of discretion in calling fouls.
"I don't think they had bad intentions, but in a close match like this, one team going to the free throw line 40 times compared to the other's 14 is crucial. That makes all the difference at the end of the game. If they had taken 5 fewer free throws, the result would have been different," lamented Marcelinho, who wants to forget the incident with Alex that occurred in the second half.
"That's part of the game. I wanted to take my space, I hit him in the face by accident and he wanted to get satisfaction, thinking he would intimidate me. But we are two experienced players and he won't be able to intimidate me anywhere. But that's in the past and now I just want to be focused for the third game," he concluded.
While the controversy surrounding Alex is a thing of the past, the injury to center Alírio, who felt a twinge in his left knee and is out of Sunday's match, is a major concern for coach Paulo Chupeta. With only center Wagner available for the game since Sunday, the red-and-black coach knows he'll need to improvise to handle Estevam's tough play in the paint.
"I'm very worried, yes. I already didn't have Colonezes and now I've lost Alírio, who was having a great playoff run. I only have Wagner and Victor as pivots, and Guilherme (Teichmann) wants to be able to do that too. But they're very intense defensive players and sometimes they overdo it with fouls. I'll talk to them and show them that we have to know how to control that intensity in the match," said Chupeta, who hopes that Duda and Hélio can repeat their performance from the first game.
"I think we need to be more focused defensively on Sunday and share our attack with Marcelo a bit more. Unfortunately, Duda and Hélio were subdued on Friday and didn't perform as well as they did in Rio. But I have a lot of faith in this group and we're ready to win on Sunday and take the final home."
Marcelinho, the top scorer in the second match with 41 points, once again complained about the refereeing, especially regarding a decision. According to the red-and-black captain, in a match with so much contact and a close contest between two such evenly matched teams, there was a lack of discretion in calling fouls.
"I don't think they had bad intentions, but in a close match like this, one team going to the free throw line 40 times compared to the other's 14 is crucial. That makes all the difference at the end of the game. If they had taken 5 fewer free throws, the result would have been different," lamented Marcelinho, who wants to forget the incident with Alex that occurred in the second half.
"That's part of the game. I wanted to take my space, I hit him in the face by accident and he wanted to get satisfaction, thinking he would intimidate me. But we are two experienced players and he won't be able to intimidate me anywhere. But that's in the past and now I just want to be focused for the third game," he concluded.
While the controversy surrounding Alex is a thing of the past, the injury to center Alírio, who felt a twinge in his left knee and is out of Sunday's match, is a major concern for coach Paulo Chupeta. With only center Wagner available for the game since Sunday, the red-and-black coach knows he'll need to improvise to handle Estevam's tough play in the paint.
"I'm very worried, yes. I already didn't have Colonezes and now I've lost Alírio, who was having a great playoff run. I only have Wagner and Victor as pivots, and Guilherme (Teichmann) wants to be able to do that too. But they're very intense defensive players and sometimes they overdo it with fouls. I'll talk to them and show them that we have to know how to control that intensity in the match," said Chupeta, who hopes that Duda and Hélio can repeat their performance from the first game.
"I think we need to be more focused defensively on Sunday and share our attack with Marcelo a bit more. Unfortunately, Duda and Hélio were subdued on Friday and didn't perform as well as they did in Rio. But I have a lot of faith in this group and we're ready to win on Sunday and take the final home."