Lolo Encinas, at a press conference. /
Acunsa Gipuzkoa faces Coruña on Sunday in Illunbe with Motos out, suffering from muscle problems
Acunsa Gipuzkoa Basket returns to competition this Sunday with the match against Leyma Coruña at 6:00 p.m. in Illunbe after a three-week break forced by the postponement of a match and the commitments of the national teams. “I didn’t feel like it much because I don’t like being so long without playing, the question of how we are doing comes back again because you train but you don’t have the reference,” Lolo Encinas said this Friday.
As usual this season, they have not been quiet weeks in the environment of the team that is in eighth place with eleven wins and nine losses. “Steinarsson has been with the national team, the Americans have had to fly to their country for paperwork issues and they have returned and Mikel Motos had a muscle problem last week and it is difficult for him to arrive, he is almost ruled out.” The shooting guard from San Sebastian is experiencing a complicated season with physical setbacks and the Covid that he has suffered in recent months and has already missed five games. This weekend’s would be the sixth of twenty-one.
Nor does it seem that Coruña will arrive in San Sebastián with all its available players according to the words of Sergio García to this newspaper, transmitting that Ward, Hamilton and Schaftenaar are doubtful. Lolo Encinas has not given it any importance either and prefers to wait until Sunday to see who gets off the bus in the Illunbe car park. “There have been many years with this question of doubts on Fridays. He has a very long squad and come those who come we are going to fight with them ».
The San Sebastian team has a current balance of eight defeats in eight games against the teams that are classified among the top seven, a barrier that Acunsa Gipuzkoa wants to break down now. «We really want to beat someone who is above us in the standings and believe that we can beat them, because soon we are going to have a few of this level and to enter the playoffs we are going to have to win one of them. We are competing very well against teams from the middle down, but to take the next step we have to play well against teams of this type.
The precedent of the first round, 92-62, is not the most hopeful, but Encinas declares that «now we are not the same team and we would like us to compete. They ran over us there. It was shown that Coruña is a great team and that we played very badly. That, along with Granada, are the two games that we have competed in the least, but this Sunday we are going to fight with the ten that we have available.
“We haven’t even had the option to sign”
This Monday the transfer market in the LEB Oro has closed and the club has not made any last-minute additions. Asked if there had been any option, the San Sebastian coach replied that “I would have loved to bring a ‘5’ ‘comeniños’, but the club was very honest with me and told me that this was what there was. We haven’t even had the option to sign and we haven’t looked at anything either. I have to say that the group trains well and everyone accepts what there is. I have fun every time I train this group. I don’t know where we’ll get to, but we’re going to fight to be in the playoffs. This year is what we have and we are going to spend as much as possible. The club has been very sincere and I agree.”
