Enraged Peppe Poeta explains why Trento knocked out Olimpia Milano
Peppe Poeta sees everything black after his Olimpia Milano’s 84-74 loss in Trento, which, moreover, allowed Aquila Basket to center the playoffs against Varese. The coach of the meneghini, in particular, saw some aspects of his players that he just didn’t like and that in his view made them inferior to the day’s opponents.
“I’m angry, because I wanted to play a better game,” Poeta complained in the press conference. “I wanted to win, so that I could enter the playoffs on the right foot. Evidently it didn’t go that way, maybe because Trento had more motivation than Olimpia Milano and that made the difference. They played well and put a lot of energy on the court, we didn’t use the physicality that we have anyway. We will have to do that in the playoffs, putting our bodies into it and always staying glued to the opposing forwards.”
Another aspect of the Trento game caught Poeta’s attention. “The three-point shots were decisive. They came close to a 50 percent percentage, scoring even on occasions when it was difficult to do so. We, on the other hand, also had easy shots, but we stopped at 19 percent. That’s not good, in the playoffs we will also have ugly, dirty and bad games and we will have to win them. I have already pointed this out to the guys. Also because now we will face Reggio Emilia, which has won 10 times in the last 11,” Olimpia Milano’s coach reminded.
On the scoreboard front, Armoni Brooks’ 18 points were not enough to avoid the misstep, while Bayehe was Trento’s dragging force with 14 points. A result that, in fact, did not shift the Meneghini’s position in the standings: Olimpia ends the regular season in third place with 40 points, behind Virtus Bologna first at 46 and Germani Brescia second at 42.
The day’s verdict instead smiled on Aquila Basket, which, thanks to Varese’s simultaneous 104-85 defeat at home to Virtus Bologna – despite Nkamouha’s 30 points for Openjobmetis – was able to celebrate playoff access by virtue of favorable direct matches, thus ousting the Lombardi from the postseason.
Now for Olimpia Milano the playoff chapter opens, with the schedule already set. The red-and-whites will host Reggio Emilia at the Assago Forum in games 1 and 2 on May 16 and 18, respectively, before moving to Emilia for possible games 3 and 4 on May 21 and 23. The eventual bella would be played in Assago on May 25. In case of passage of the round, Milan would face the winner of the series between Germani Brescia and Pallacanestro Trieste in the semifinals.
This is not the first time Poeta has had to deal with erratic performances by his team. Already after the 85-90 win in Venice over Reyer, the coach had pointed out that discontinuity was the team’s main Achilles’ heel: “We played a serious and solid game, unfortunately, however, we are not able to be as consistent as we would like to be for the entire 40 minutes. There are sore sides such as the blackouts we take that complicate our lives.” A problem that now, at the gates of the playoffs, risks becoming decisive.
