MONTECATINI. “#Iocicredo” was written on the sheets that the public in the stands kept in view in Game 3 to show the players their trust in them. Everyone was right: those who printed those signs risking them becoming the souvenir of a bad memory, and those who waved them. In the playoffs, you learn something in every game. In the first two, Fabo learned that with Ruvo, a fifteen point lead isn’t enough to stay calm, and for this reason on Friday it kept the accelerator on the floor until the end, because after two slaps like that you’re there wondering: “But Will 18 be enough? Will 21 be enough? Will 25 be enough?”. So it happens that at a certain point the opponents understand that yes, those points are enough, so the maximum advantage comes in the last minute, because you don’t want to risk anything.
In Game 3 the Herons learned that we need a frenetic, physical defense, the one that brought us back the “Barsotti Band” that we were used to when the age of the roster was a little lower and in centimeters a little less. And they also learned – obviously – that if you make a 3-pointer every shot, everything is easier. With this fresh wealth of experience, Fabo plays Game 4 today at 6pm at the Palaterme to equalize the series and return to Ruvo and make Tecnoswitch feel like they have their backs against the wall for the first time. The herons are already there, like two days ago. A condition that did not crush them, but rather produced energy capable of illuminating the building even without connection to the electricity grid. Now the less good news, from the rossoblù point of view: Rajola’s players also learned in these three matches. They managed to reverse the trend of the first two but collapsed in the third: «We knew – explains the guest coach – that Montecatini would bring a very strong intensity to the pitch, but we weren’t able to stay on the same level. We held out for half the match, then the disappointment and the awareness that the match was going away made us drop.”
Contento and Ghersetti, both rested at the end, carried out shooting training on Saturday morning: «They are bruised, nothing in particular, we will decide on the spot whether to use them» says the coach again. At home Fabo, however, is dominated by Sgobba’s left knee sprain: there is no ligament involvement, the player has already started rehabilitation, but even in this case the situation will be assessed at the last minute. «It wouldn’t have been right or even consistent with what we saw on the pitch in the first two games – said Federico Barsotti after Game 3 – to go out without a win. Now we will try to make an impact and return to Puglia, knowing that it will be very difficult because we have a team in front of us that scores baskets that I have never seen in nine years of Serie B.”
Trying to imagine today’s match, the coach says: «Game 4 is perhaps the only match in which tiredness can be decisive: there are only 48 hours to recover, and therefore energy can reign supreme». The most brilliant moments were those in which Fabo moved the ball quickly, especially when the big men passed the ball to each other on the cuts, giving up a shot of medium difficulty to give an easier one to a teammate. The recipe can only be the same, with one caveat: in the playoffs there are rarely two matches that are similar. This time it happened on the first two occasions, and the rossoblù hope that it also applies to the second two. The future cannot be seen, but it is there, in the trajectories of the ball, in the drops of sweat, in the faces of the players.
Soon it will become present and from tomorrow it will be past. Hoping to have one at hand, in the future, again in Puglia.
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