Translated from this post

" Boris shut a lot of people's mouth "

At last ! Against Russia, we finally made a 40 minutes game, unlike previous games. Even if we were trailing in the 1st half we were in the game, we were confident. You could feel we had the game in hands, we didn't panic. They were playing everything, they went all out on the court because they were playing their qualification. But then Boris [Diaw] had a big game, Tony [Parker] and Ronny [Turiad] too. It wasn't easy because the Russians and Germany were a bit the same, the same context. Since they didn't have their stars they were playing without complex. They weren't favorites, so they wanted to show people that they could play well without them.

Anyways we managed to win and Boris shut a lot of people's mouth :) He wasn't really in a different mood from usual, he approaches each game to the max. But I think we gave him confidence, we put him in the rythm from the start. We did the first 3 systems for him. And voila, 19 pts, 7 rbds et 7 passes, it was just Boris.

From a personal perspective, well, I made a crap game. Honestly I wasn't tremendous. I wasn't very active. On the first 3 plays I'm 3 times in mode not there in defense. Honestly I did a crap game. On the other hand, we've won our 3rd game that's the important thing.

Especially after the game before... Someday it's not your day. And there against Latvia it wasn't our day. Definitely not. Yet I can't say we took bad shots. We took regular shots. But nothing was happening. The ring, instead of 18 inches in diameter, was 8. You couldn't do anything. It was strange but we were feeling at one point it would unlock. Ali [Traoré] however was on. Fortunately. Fortunately he was there. Fortunately he can do other things than writting bullshit on his blog and he can play basketball !! [Nic is refering to the blog Ali Traoré is writting during the Euro in the same site]

At half time we were pissed off. We were thinking " Fuck, we suck ! " The coach told us : " It will start to go in. We can't do better in defense. In attack we play well, we just have to put them in. " They only scored 21 points at half-time, barely 50 in the whole game. We were there in defense. We had to go on shooting. Vincent [Collet] told us " If anyone refuses a shoot I take him out. Go on shooting, eventually it will go in. " In second half, we put ourselves more in the rythm, we started running more and then reassured ourselves. Tony attacked the rim more, Nando [De Colo] and Boris made important shots.

After the game we were happy anyways. Because we've qualified coming from a long way, we've made the qualifications [for the Euro] and we've still passed the first round with 3 victories. It's the important thing. In a way, we prefer to laugh at our first half, because it was really too much.

The first game was hard too, a bit laborious. But we've taken the important thing. But to be honest it was a close call. The Germans played really well. Even without Dirk they wanted to show something early in this Euro. We knew it, we'd prepared but anyways... Maybe the pressure of the beginning of a competition and one week without playing made us completely miss the first half. But we weren't harmed, down by 4, and fortunately for us experienced players like Tony or Ronny have done a great mental job for us. They've talked, guided the others to be ready right from the start in this second half. They reminded us that we weren't going to rape them by 20 points, that they know how to play basketball and they have a good coach. And that we had to set our minds in the game because we weren't going to win like that. They've remobilized everyone.

After that we were more agressive, more enterprising in our plays even if they were still in the game. But overall, it was satisfying to manage to win this match in the money time with Tony guiding us in the end and showing he's the boss. And it was Flo [Pietrus]' 100th.

Today (thursday), we were transfered by bus. I confirm was Ali said : They're insane ! They go though red traffic lights, take the wrong way around traffic circles, they're close to knocking people over. We don't feel right. Well… This afternood was free, with workouts at night. So I took the afternoon to… SLEEP. Because we're really tired. And workouts today were only shoots. To get used to the new arena and to rest bodies. 3 games in 3 days is hard. I feel exhausted, I hurt everywhere. It's getting more and more intense. Intensity is one step further what I've experienced until now, with the intensity of each game and the fact that we play every day.

Tomorrow (Friday) is video at 11am, workout at noon, then nap, snack and Macedonia.

Well I've read Ali's blog including what he said about plays on words.[extract from Ali Traoré's blog : Nico tries to be as good as me on crappy puns but it's hard !] Ali has the worst plays on words in history. He can say whatever in his blog, but the worst are his, because mines are funny. Well sometimes... But his, never. With Ali we sometimes do battles of puns on players' name. And it's pathetic. I don't want to give examples because well... they're not brilliant. It can go very very far so I don't know if I'm going to give examples. Maybe next time.

Finally, I also read what he said on Kambala. [extract from Ali Traoré's blog on the German player : With him you look straight at your feet. He's got a crazy head, he looks like a cold war killer. Well on the court it's a different story because there'll be people to protect me. But in real life you're all alone. I wouldn't risk myself provocating him. He's a psycho we'll have to handle or he's going to hurt us, this Kambala guy.] Well at team presentations, Kambala made a slight boxing movement, and Ali wasn't feeling well, he was sweating for a short while...