Zagreb was able to explore it’s overall physical presence and relative freshness in order to convincingly win game 1 of Croatian A1 League final series by 58:73.
Cedevita had no answer to the play of long-armed Zagreb CO C Luka Zoric who was able to breakdown Cedevita’s interior defenders at will. On the other side Zagreb CO SF Ante Masic reconfirmed himself as the right defensive match for just about all Cedevita’s outside shooting options (Bazdaric, Rudez, Wright). The two combined for 34 points and 26 boards.
Many basketball VIPs already claim that without homecourt advantage and without SG Bracey Wright who has partially ruptured his calf in the game 1 of the series and has reportedly been placed on the injured list until the end of the season, Cedevita could easily become “sweep” material.
Cedevita’s head coach Aco Petrovic is very aware of that but will give his best effort to explore the situation and try to build up “nothing to lose” attitude in the locker room:
“We have to regain the homecourt advantage with the right approach in Game 2. However Zagreb has the advantage at this moment because they lead 1:0 and we have lost Wright who was our key player in the pressure situations like this one during the season.”
Game 2 of the final series is scheduled for Wednesday (20.15 CET).
