Olimpia falls with Trento, Ettore Messina sounds the alarm
The words of Ettore Messina after the knockout with Trento
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Ettore Messina, coach of Olimpia Milano, commented on the home loss to Dolomiti Energia Trentino in Game 1 of the quarterfinals of the playoffs scudetto: "Trento deserved the victory, beyond the fact that it materialized on the last possession. We had beaten them three times this year, we started very well in the first quarter and from that moment on we played them extremely poor defense".
"We did not help ourselves, we let them take away rebounds, we suffered mentally first of all – added the coach of the Red Shoes -. On offense 84 points must be enough to win despite a poorly balanced performance even on offense. We are down and we must try to overturn the series".
"Did Trent do what it wanted under the basket? With two players, otherwise they play with four small outside players. I believe, and I am convinced, we are all convinced, that we need an extra guard to generate on offense. Cooke? I think Melli and Hines are enough. If they are not, we can’t add … è an issue I think of quality expectation of individual performance. If Melli and Hines are not enough to play against Cooke, we have a problem. Not è that we add another long guy. On offense? We were not patient settling for the first free throw from three. I talked earlier about an unbalanced offensive performance with little discipline".
"They know perfectly well that during the year we have already seen and experienced these things here. We need to cut it out, otherwise it's difficult to win the series with Trent. We are not here to have good practices, but to win" commented Messina on the tension among the players.
