From Belgrade to Belgrade: Micic, Larkin, Pablo Laso's concern and the "magic potion"

• Jasikevicius "I don't know if this team needs another coach"

Belgrade has meant White City since its origins and Real Madrid makes it its own, blessed idyll with the Serbian capital.

This Saturday (7:00 p.m., DAZN), who would say, will seek to repeat the Euroleague that he achieved here four years ago, then the Tenth.

To reign in Europe again in its most inexplicable season, to raise a title again -beyond Supecopas- to break the unprecedented drought in the

, more than two years since the Malaga Cup and almost three since the 2019 ACB "I don't have a magic potion," says the coach before his fifth final in a decade.

In the Final Four, time speeds up.

No one remembers what happened on Thursday, the enormous demonstration of self-love by Real Madrid against that almighty Barça that had ruined him over and over again and now chews on his own miseries.

What matters now is Anadolu Efes, the threatening champion.

And what is spinning in Laso's head is the

injury , which lasted just 52 seconds on the court.

If

are two unapproachable demons, it would be even more difficult without the most physical point guard on the squad.

It will be time, again, for heroics.

And perhaps morbidly, if Laso bets on pardoning

, separated since the beginning of April along with

for that indiscipline in Athens.

It doesn't seem like it, the Frenchman would not deserve to capture the prominence that his teammates sweated in the resurrection against Maccabi.

"It is a possibility that he plays, for sure," the coach deflected the controversy, who pondered over that challenge, stopping the best foreign pair that the Euroleague remembers in years.

"Efes is a great team beyond individualities. Both Micic and Larkin are differentials. Stopping them can be very easy, I put two on top of each one. That's why they are so good, because they are going to find another and they are going to kill us The attention they generate makes them good. I want to make a good team defense", he admitted to the side of

, remembering the quarterfinal series last year: "

and the important triple was scored by Simon".

The Croatian forward will not be either, although beyond Micic and Larkin, the champion relies on the experience of a squad that has changed little in recent years.

, one of the few new faces, shone against Olympiacos.

The interior power of Madrid with

is evident, but on the perimeter it can suffer.

Tidal waves to the end

What the Turks and Spaniards do share is the tidal wave with which they have reached the final in Belgrade.

It will be the third in a row for Efes, the 19th in its history for Madrid, which finished fourth in the regular season after losing eight of its last 10 games.

Those from Istanbul, meanwhile, could only be sixth after an improper start.

"We have never doubted. We have had problems, like them. Nothing is easy, but I don't think about the past. What teams don't have problems? We had them, for sure. But we are here. Period", settled Laso.

A curse and a coincidence.

In the three semifinal precedents between Barça and Madrid, the Spaniards always ended up losing in the final match afterwards.

It will also be, by the way, the fifth time that football and white basketball share a continental final.

It happened in 1962, 1964, 2014 and 2018. Only in the last one, Belgrade and kyiv, did the double come.

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