The best season in the history of the club, where they reached the quarter-finals of the FIBA Eurocup, the Mornar basketball team will crown with two or three semifinal games of the ABA League play-off, against the Red Star, the current champion. Not only because the "red and white" took the first place in the league and “Barani” fourth, it is clear that the Red Star is a favorite in this semi-final, which is a role that absolutely fits the team of Mihailo Pavićević, who can’t lose anything and have so much to gain, reports Vijesti on March 17, 2018.
"We have achieved our goal with our good games in the past three months - now everyone thinks that Mornar can play against any team. This is a great compliment to us. After two years of playing in the ABA League, we have already gained so much sympathy in the region that we don’t have time to respond to all the congratulations we receive on a daily basis. This result came from a great atmosphere in the club. We are all like one and we are very proud of that, " says coach Mihailo Pavićević.
The Mornar strategist, however, adds that "it would be unwise to threaten Red Star, which in the past few years, in this region, is an absolutely dominant team."
"We could not make a better overture for the Sunday match, and neither did they. We played a fantastic game against Ostende, and in the second half of the game, Red Star was great against a solid Valencia, all of which indicates that basketball fans on Sunday could attend a nice, high-quality game. The Star is an absolute favorite, not only against us but also against all the teams in the ABA league. But, as I have said countless times, we are not afraid of anyone for the simple reason that we know how much we can do. We will try to give the maximum in this game, and we will see if this will be enough to win. Certainly we have some of our trump cards that we will try to use in that first game, but everything depends on the Red Star," added Pavićević who in the playoffs will not be able to count on injured Uroš Luković, which will be a big handicap for his team.
In the past two seasons, Mornar and Red Star have played four matches in the ABA league, and the Belgrade team has won all four.
"Red Star is made up of 12 players of equal quality; they are covered in all positions with two or three players, they have both youth and experience and athleticism, and simply playing in the Euroleague makes them dominant in the ABA league. We are going to Belgrade and we will make sure that we will do our best to use the opportunity," concluded the Mornar coach.
Tomorrow’s game at the "Aleksandar Nikolić" Hall starts at 19:00.
This article was translated from an article by S.J. on Vijesti.me: Pavićević: We do not threaten and we are not afraid
