At least, there is no reason to complain about the drama when the Swedish national basketball team made its European Championship rehearsal in front of 7,517 spectators at Hovet.
After an occasionally fairly weak performance, Sweden almost managed to turn the game around and win against Estonia, despite being six points behind with less than two minutes left.
But Pelle Larsson's shot in the final attack did not go in. Estonia won with 88–87.
Many bad minutes and a few good ones that keep us in the game. Then we still show the right fighting spirit and attitude in the end, so that we come back, says NBA star Pelle Larsson after the loss.
The coach on visit
In the front row, Miami's head coach Erik Spoelstra was sitting – visiting Stockholm to meet both Larsson and his family.
It means a lot, we have not had time to get so much one-on-one time even in Miami, says Larsson, who also enjoyed playing in front of the home crowd.
It was great fun, it ended too quickly. It's so crazy that you only get a few minutes every few years with this audience and in front of family and friends, it's a bit emotional actually. You don't know when it will happen again.
Next Wednesday, much more is at stake when Sweden, in its first European Championship since 2013, makes its premiere against Finland in Tampere.
Nothing but losses
After four consecutive losses during the European Championship build-up, it will require something out of the ordinary to be able to challenge the host nation with NBA giant Lauri Markkanen at the forefront.
We will need to raise ourselves to even be able to play evenly with the teams in the European Championship. When we are good, we are very good, but we also have a far too low lowest level, says team captain Ludvig Håkanson.
He noted that it was very nice that the meeting with Estonia was just a practice match, not least considering the outcome.
We make an uneven match, then it's strong to come back and be so brutally close to winning. But we have a little to work on before the European Championship.
Sweden plays the entire group stage in Tampere. Of the six teams in group B, four will advance to the round of 16.
Sweden's opponents:
August 27, Finland.
August 29, Germany.
August 30, Great Britain.
September 1, Montenegro.
September 3, Lithuania.
