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Russian coach: We have to be like a machine

Russia got their second win in Bamberg tournament last night, their centers played great. The Germans showed lots of weaknesses in the defense and lost to the Israelis

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A typical final match won't be played in Bamberg tournament, but everyone will play against everyone in the group of four national teams. However, the Germans and the Russians will play the "finals" because the winner of this match will probably win the Supercup, even though it's possible that there will be a round of three teams with the same ratio. Germany defeated Latvia on Friday in a tough and intense match, and the game they played against the Israelis yesterday was much faster and looked much better, but they didn't manage to get the result they wanted.

Coach Emir Mutapcic shuffled the starting five this time. Schroder-Tadda-Benzing-Harris-Zirbes started, a taller team than against the Latvians. The home team didn't start well defensively. They allowed the opponent to score 30 points in the first period, far too many open shots.

Germany were behind with a minimal difference till the half-time, but slowly took things to their own hands in the rest of the match. The Israelis didn't surrender, they used some German mistakes and one technical foul in the 35th minute to get to 82-75 lead. Later, the home team just couldn't catch up. So, the German series of six consecutive wins in the preliminaries was ended.

- We allowed Israel to score 28 points from the counter attacks, and 15 in other offenses. It's almost 50% of their points. It shows we weren't patient and balanced enough in the offense. That always means danger from conceding points from the transitions. We started the match too relaxed, and it bit us. And then Vargas made the technical for no reason... all in all, we allowed the opponents to score too many easy shots and we were punished for it - Mutapcic said.

Schaffartzik was the best for the Germans, scoring 17 points, Schroder added 11, and Benzing 10. Again, the center Pleiss wasn't in the lineup, and he'll probably miss this match. Theis has injury problems from before. If Pleiss and Theis could help, the German rebounds would definitely be much better.

The Russians came to Bamberg with lots of worries and a big number of lay-offs, but they're showing that their form is improving with each match, and could be in the optimal form for the EC qualifications. After they defeated the Israelis, they defeated Latvia yesterday, too, and are now the only team who haven't been defeated in this competition. The Russians controlled the action from the first minute. They lead 10-5, and had +8 till the end of the first period, they had +13 when the second period started. The Baltic team didn't give up. They reduced it to -3 till the half-time, but the great Russian defensive game decided the winner. The Latvians scored only 8 points in the third period, and the Russians were leading by 15, ending the story.

Again, the Russian center line dominated. Sokolov scored 15, Mozgov 14 and 10 rebounds. We should mention Kurbanov's 11 points, too. No player spent over 25 minutes on the court. Their only minus is Karasev's form, but the NBA player joined them only recently, and it's hard to expect him to play magnificently in this tournament already.

- We started the second half-time from null last night. We agreed in the locker room that we'll try to fix some mistakes and it was much easier then. We have to be like a machine, always playing the fast rhythm. Latvia couldn't keep up with our speed in the third period... It's great that we started using our physical strength again, and the height in the paint. We have tall centers who open the space for the back players greatly - coach Jevgenij Pasutin said.

Altogether, the Russians left the best impression in the first two days of the tournament. Today, they'll have a great chance in the paint again, which could be crucial, considering the German problems with the defensive rebounds. The Russians will win the tournament if they win today, or lose by 6 or less.