Messina: We need to keep working and move on to the next game and hopefully raise our level

Olimpia Milano coach Ettore Messina talks after the road loss against Alba Berlin.

“Congratulations to Coach Gonzalez and ALBA. They played a good game. They were up for a great part of the game, and they outrebounded us very seriously, which was what cost us the game. Unfortunately, we played for one more game very low-level defense and allowed them to play easily until the middle of the third quarter. That’s when we raised our aggressiveness. We were more connected and we got a lot of stops. And like it always happens, when you play defense, you’re also more aggressive on offense. And that’s what allowed us to come back. But until that moment, we were very poor on offense. And we were, unfortunately, very inefficient defensively. And that’s something we have to fix, the basic fundamentals: one-on-one, weak side, box out. There’s nothing strategy-wise that is more important than taking care of the fundamentals. So, we’re surely in a bad moment and we need to keep working and move on to the next game and hopefully raise our level.”

The Italian side is fourth in the Euroleague standings with 8 wins, but has lost the last 4 games.