Lazy Iberostar Tenerife humiliated by Bilbao Basket
Yesterday, even the last-place team in Spain should win against Bilbao Basket, because the Basques were very affected by the injuries. Actually they had only 6 players and some young Spaniards who fight with motivation against the clear favourite of the battle, Iberostar Tenerife.
From the beginning of the encounter, the Canarian squad was very weak and their lack of motivation could be seen on each ball possession. Even if Ondrej Balvin, the most important center of Bilbao Basket committed 2 fouls in the first minutes of the game, Tenerife players were not able to take advantage of this situation. They continued to play in a stupid way, allowing offensive rebounds and not caring about the ball. They looked like the most disorganized team I have ever seen. Their roster was much better than Bilbao’s one, the rotation was superior but they played like in holidays.
Let’s see some facts of the disaster:
- Aaron White, ex-Euroleague Final 4 star with Zalgiris Kaunas ended up with 0 points and -1 at index rate. Was he good enough to beat CSKA Moscow in Belgrade in 2018 taking the 3rd place in the most important competition of Europe and now he wasn’t able to do anything on the court?
- Another experienced player, Giorgi Shermadini committed 3 consecutive turnovers in the last quarter. How is that possible? How was the ball movement so slow and easy to be guessed by the opponents?
- Iberostar Tenerife had only 24 rebounds in the whole game compared with 39 rebounds of Bilbao Basket. This is saying a lot about the different levels of motivation of both teams. If you are lazy and you don’t run for your defensive rebounds you don’t deserve to win, but you will definitely be humiliated even by a team plagued with injuries.
- the veteran Rafa Martinez (38 years old) had 100% at 2 pointers and as well from the arc for Bilbao Basket, proving that motivation is the key.
Image: Basketball Champions League
Gratian Cormos
