Olimpia Milano knockout with Valencia, Ettore Messina: "Incredible heart but lacked balance"

L’Olimpia Milano goes down again at home in the Euroleague: at the Forum of Assago, Valencia passes 103-100 thwarting a great comeback of the red and whites who had climbed up to 100-100. “Obviously it was a tough game, we did not find defensive balance especially between the end of the first quarter and the’beginning of the second quarter– stressed coach Ettore Messina in the press conference -, and also at the’beginning of the third quarter, when they scored seven threes but we did not defend as we should have”.

“We didn&#8220t communicate well, slowly we changed the game with a smaller quintet, even with Ricci and Sestina on the court together – added the red and white coach -. The team played with incredible heart, because they came back twice from a major disadvantage, continuing to run and play”.

“We had an opportunity to win the game, we could have gone ahead. We missed some open shots, a couple of layups, and they scored from three. Episodes decided the game. We know where we struggled but also where we did very well. The team&#8217s character, and also the excellent offense played, are a good thing. Until now we had never suffered so much on defense. Their speed, their guards, long shooting opened up the court a lot, gave us a lot of problems”.

Closing on the injury situation: “I feel sorry for Diop who was helping us. He got hurt in the warm-up, he had this bad luck. We will see how long he will be out. We will know more tomorrow, Lorenzo Brown has at least 3 more weeks. Josh Nebo at least 2 weeks. Zach LeDay maybe may have a chance to be back by the end of next week”.