Partizan eliminated Red Star; "It's hard to win four derbies" – Saša Obradović's bizarre move

Asked how he managed to turn KK Partizan’s season around, Joan Peñarroya said:

“The most important thing is to have the right players — players who want to compete and turn the season around. They worked and trained brilliantly. As a coach, I didn’t do anything special. I introduced some small adjustments, but the players themselves realized how important it is to fight, train hard, and play as a team. A few months ago, the situation at Partizan was bad, and it was obvious the players wanted to play more individually. We managed to remove that selfishness and started playing together, as a team.”

Asked whether this was one of Partizan’s best games recently, he replied:

“I don’t know. It’s hard to win four derbies in a row.”

On the competition format and the long break before the final series:

“The people running the competition need to think about whether this kind of schedule is good for the league. I think it’s very difficult to maintain focus at the end of such a long season, especially with a break of as much as two weeks. On top of that, we also have to play in another competition with a different roster compared to this one, just like Zvezda. Still, that’s not a question for me.”

Nick Calathes changed the course of both games and, therefore, the entire series.

“A living legend. He’s one of the most important players of the last 15 years. For us, he is incredibly important, and in the last two games he was fantastic. But it’s not only about him. Nick is crucial for the team, of course, and he also had injury problems. He’s a great professional who stepped onto the court despite everything. He means a lot to us,” Peñarroya concluded.