The atmosphere inside the Spurs of San Antonio is urgent, as was shown in the return to work for the first training for the third game of the Western Conference finals that will play on Saturday against the Warriors of Golden State.
The Spurs are down 0-2 in the tie to the best of seven and are aware, from the Spanish center Pau Gasol to the veteran Argentine escort Emanuel Ginóbili, great connoisseurs of what happens in the playoff competition, that another defeat in the Third match would be very difficult to overcome.
No team has recovered from a 0-3 disadvantage in these instances of the season in NBA history.
From there, there is no tomorrow for the Spurs with the third game, that the only thing that is worth them is to get the victory when they jump to the track of the AT & T Center of San Antonio.
Gasol recognizes that within the team there is concern and urgency, in the sense that they are before the party that must win without excuses in order to have options to continue in the competition.
The important losses, sure of the French base Tony Parker, and the possible of the star forward Kawhi Leonard, who did not train, should not be cause to put more pressure on the players of the Spurs but of being aware that they have to fight with those who They’re available.
“We are in a desperate position,” Gasol admitted after completing the training. “We have to get conscious that we need to win the game because there is no room for anything else.
The Sant Boi player, who did not want to enter into the controversy generated with the injury of Leonard by the Georgian center Zaza Pachulia, if I value the way they had lost the first game (113-111) and then the second by 136-100 .
In both cases, Gasol acknowledged that the team did not do well, especially in the first when they had every opportunity to win, although he acknowledged that the Warriors are a very difficult and complicated team.
“You have to be the aggressor,” Gasol said. “If you let them feel comfortable, they score four or five triples in a row, then you will be in a big problem because they give you no respite “.
The mystery of what will happen with Leonard, the franchise player of the team, who already missed the second game with a sprained left ankle, is something that also worries within the team.
Leonard was on Thursday at the Spurs’ facility, but did not participate in the practice during the open portion in the press.
“It was calm, nor did it participate much,” said the oldest of the brothers Gasol. “The important thing is that he is ready for Saturday and that he can play, that he can help us. He is our best player and we hope he is against this very complicated opponent.”
While the escort Danny Green rejected that the equipment entered the second game defeated in advance, by the absence of Leonard.
“They simply dominated us from the beginning,” he said. “Maybe we were still digging the loss (Sunday), very painful because we know we had everything to win, we were up by 25 points and we did not know how to close the game, regardless of who we played.”
Green and Ginobili recalled that when the playoffs competition arrives everyone has to be at the maximum in both the physical and mental aspects to recover from defeats like those suffered against the Warriors.
The key to the third game for players like Gasol, Green and Ginobili is to go out on the field with the winning mentality, without thinking about what happened before.
The Spurs will not train on Friday. They will only receive press in their headquarters, to comment the last details previous to which they consider can be the party that changes the course of the series in his favor.
“It’s a match of life and death to continue our final phase,” Gasol said. “The team understands the situation, we know we are down 2-0 and we are aware that we will tie the tie if we win these two games at home.
The Sant Boi player recalled that they were already able to draw 2-2 the tie against the Houston Rockets after having lost the first game in their field.
“We can do it again and if we reach a fifth game with the tie tied, although they have the advantage of the field and are a very difficult team, everything can happen,” said Gasol.
