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Berliners wish to play their style against Zaragoza

The Spaniards came to Berlin highly motivated after home loss against Canarias, something no one expected to happen and that disappointed many. But Zaragoza are much better team than that

Alba will try to confirm their good performances against probably the best opponent they faced so far in the season. The Berliners have three consecutive wins and so far they played four official games and they lost by a last second basket against Artland, so they were really close to having a perfect score on the season. Coach Sasa Obradovic during the summer created a team according to his wishes. He changed practically the whole roster and players he acquired can realize his tactical ideas.

Defense is their main preoccupation and their numbers prove it. They did not allow over 67 points to their opponents in their first four games. That is exactly how much they allowed Wurzburg on Saturday in a potentially difficult road game. If there was no obvious relaxation in the second half, they could have limited their opponents to even less points. At one point point Alba had a 20 point lead and then they slowed down. Motivated Wurzburg, who are without a win this season, used their chance and they made a 16-0 run, but the Berliners managed to collect themselves and routinely close the game.

- After losing in Wurzburg in previous seasons, I am happy we finally won. We almost had the same situation we faced against Artland. I hope we learned our lesson and we will continue to play defense next time we have a big lead - said Serbian coach.

Their best player was David Logan with 16 points. He is playing good at the start of the season. Obradovic uses him as point guard and shooting guard. On Saturday he had 5 assists, 6 rebounds and 3 steals. He is great in pick an roll with Leon Radosevic and Levon Kendall, which so far is the staple of Alba offense.

It is important to mention that center Jonas Wohlfahrt-Bottermann recovered from injury and he will allow them better rotation. That is important today since even at the start of the season Obradovic said they wish to maintain pressure on the defensive end. Today they will use the same recipe to win against the Spaniards. They used their great defense against Telekom in the first round and managed to win against offensively minded Bundesliga team, that is what they will do today.

- Zaragoza are one of the best, if not the strongest, teams in our group. Although they are playing in the Eurocup for the first time, they do not lack experience since most of their players have international experience. That is why I expect a difficult game today, but if we wish to go trough, we need to win these tough games at home and I am sure we will win in this one. My team is still making mistakes since the season is still young, but we are getting better every day - said Obradovic and power forward Jan-Hendrick Jagla added:

- We have to play our style. Each home game is key and we have five home games in the first round. The main objective is to win all of them.

CAI started their season with a decisive wins over Bilbao and Dexia Mons, but those wins gave them too much confidence and they did not have to wait long for a cold shower.

- Coach said this is his fault, but we as players were involved into it and we can not allow anything like this to happen again. We can lose, but not like that. We had a bad game and now we must look ahead - said Victor Sanikidze after a debacle at home against Canarias and 66-60 unexpected loss.

It is my fault because I did not prepare my players for this game. It is not enough to just run out on our home court and win, we have to work hard throughout the game - said Abos whose team had 13 shots more than their opponents, but they also had 23 turnovers.

That was a game worth forgetting and only Rudes with 19 points (7/14 from the field) played good.

- Personally, I played a bad game and I need to work on my performance and get better. That was a bad night, horrible for me since we lost a league game in front of our fans - added Sanikidze and continued:

- O2 Arena in Berlin is a fantastic arena, I played there last season with Sienna and we won. I hope that experience can help us. We have to be ready for a complicated game against good team that has good players and good system. We are coming there after a defeat we need to forget and not allow it to happen again. We need to fight for every ball, reduce the number of mistakes and stop turnovers. If we manage to do that, we will have our chance, although it will be difficult and complicated.

Zaragoza travel to Berlin with full roster despite the fact their guard Jon Stefansson twisted his ankle and he will not be fully ready. They have a long bench and they can replace him, first of all with American shooting guard Michael Roll, another player who has to make immense for Sunday's performance (5/13 from the field).

Under coach Obradovic, Alba are putting the emphasis on defense which they clearly proved in the several first matches of the season. They haven't conceded more than 67 points in any of the official matches yet. Offensively, they are not at that level. The efficient matches against Ludwigsburg and Telekom are not the real indicator because those were matches already resolved in the first 15 minutes or so. It is hard to expect something like that today against Zaragoza. Last week in Eurocup the Spanish team left Dexia with 56 points and on weekend they allowed 66 points to Canarias in the national championship. They have a wide selection of players who can play the entire 40 minutes on high level. So far Alba played several matches in the season against the defensively stronger teams and they would always end up below this limit. Against Artland 66, Würzburg 75 and in preseason they scored 63 against Karsiyaka and 68 against Besiktas... I expect that the home team will have a difficult task today. With the team under of the home team, the total under of points is also an option.