Olimpia Milano out of playoffs, Ettore Messina: “Granted too much.”

Defeat resulting in missing the playoffs, to be explained in the aftermath of the game.

Olimpia Milano out of the Final Eight of the Euroleague: this is the effect of the heavy 85-66 remedied on the court of Maccabi Tel Aviv, which coincides with the arithmetic certainty of not playing in this year’s playoffs. And at the end of the game Ettore Messina tried to explain the reasons for the knockout, acknowledging the merits of the opponents and also the problems of his team.

“Congratulations to Maccabi, which played an excellent game,” Messina began from the press room in Tel Aviv. “As for us, in the first half we conceded too much to our opponents. Our level of competitiveness was not enough to counter them.”

“In the second half we managed to regain the old chemistry,” Messina added. “We did well defensively, but two key moments conditioned our game. The first came when we were at -6 and missed two open triples, the second with the three missed free throws on -10.”

The last line is on Shields. “He had some pain in his knee, I think just due to some overload. I hope that’s all it is, since he had to play a few more minutes than expected. The good news, though, is that there is nothing wrong with his foot,” Messina concluded.