Messina: I need to congratulate my players once again on their effort

Olimpia Milan coach Ettore Messina talks after the win over Olympiacos:
“Very, very difficult game. For most of the game we defended well and we moved the ball well on offense. What complicated our life was our defense in the third quarter. We probably thought they were going to shoot like they did in the first half – they didn’t have a good three-point shooting percentage. But in the second half, they started hitting their shots. Our closeouts were not at the level. We were moving well, but in the moment when we needed to recover on the shooter, we basically stopped and watched them shoot. They are terrific shooters. Because of that, they came back into the game and we got nervous and we had a few rushed possessions on offense. So we complicated our life. But in the fourth quarter, my players made a tremendous effort, the defense went up again, we had a couple of important rebounds and free throws and we even managed to tie the points differential, which is always good. I need to one more time congratulate my players for their effort. As you see, Vlado [Micov] and Mike [Roll] are getting back into the rotation. But they had injuries – especially a long one for Vlado, and they are giving us what they can. Today we had some players really step up big time. But the team overall fought the whole game. And overall we deserved to win the game”.

The Italian side is third in the Euroleague standings with 14 wins in 21 games.