2024-04-05 06:45:33
“Zalgiris” already trailed by 4:15 at the beginning of the match and had to constantly chase. The difference during the duel decreased to 5 points, but also increased to 15 points – 59:44.
At the end of the match, Kaunas reduced the difference, they were given a gift by Mike James who missed two free throws, but in the end “Monaco” kept the victory.
The Kaunas team missed a total of 37 shots, and scored three points with a tragic shot – only 7 of 29 shots fell.
“Personally, what can I say about the match? Very tough match. Against such a team, you had to show all your strength, all the personality of each player.
We had to be very strong and finally at least hit the free throws. It was sorely missed because we didn’t hit anything.
And the opponents were powerful under the baskets and it was difficult to win back the balls from them under the basket”, explained “Zalgiris” coach Andrea Trincheri to Euroleague TV.
When asked what he will do now, knowing that his team may have lost the chance to advance to the playoffs, the Italian coach was nervous, but said sarcastically: “What am I going to do?” Now we have to go to the dressing room and explain to our players that what we did was not enough.”
After some time, the strategist spoke about the match at the press conference.
“The outcome of the match was decided by the first half – it was very poor for us. There were no personalities among us, even though we are fighting against a great team like Monaco.
Of course, we equalized the result, we won the other quarters, but the match was still decided by the first 10 minutes, – said A. Trinchieri at the press conference. “When you play these athletic teams, you need to hit free 3-pointers to spread the floor.”
We didn’t hit even though we defended brilliantly and allowed Monaco to score 69 points.
Unfortunately, it was not enough for victory and our Euroleague campaign is over.
Unfortunately, my dream of staying in the fight until the last Euroleague match did not come true. I’m sad, but I have to be objective – we did some good things. Basically, we fought above our capabilities today against a EuroLeague Final Four team.”
“I think we could have left the field with our heads held high. Although the final result was not in our favor, we should not have felt broken, looking at the fight and dedication. We have to look at how we turned our season – we were almost last in the ranking, but we fought, fought and stayed alive for a long time,” said A. Trinchieri.
– What are your thoughts on the match? – the “Zalgiris” coach was asked.
– It hurts, I think we competed, we fought against a very good, athletic team, we answered them quite well. Still, to win against Monaco away, you need to hit frees, we have a lot.
There were difficulties under the basket, J. Brown and D. Motiejūnas are athletic and tall players, today the task of the opponents was to be as athletic as possible.
We seem to have lost the game in the first half, we lacked personality, we were just eaten away and it is very difficult to chase a team like that throughout the game.
The boys gave it their all, we missed a few good individual moments to get the win, but it’s a bit sad for the players because the main dream was to have hope until the last game.
It’s sad for the fans too, but they should be proud – the players gave everything. What more could you ask for? We can’t point fingers if a player misses a free.
Now we have the last game, we owe the fans a good game, we will regroup, focus to win the LKL title.
– Was nervousness the main factor in the match?
– I don’t think so. It was not the main factor. Nerves are always a factor, even when you argue with your wife, it hurts your work, but the crucial factor was the start of the match, we had to start differently.
We respected our opponents too much, we were too shy.
– Do you mean L. Birutis?
– Sashimi (type of sushi). It’s never the fault of one basketball player, I’m disappointed with his attitude, he played a lot of good games, but it’s a painful experience, I could see he wasn’t ready, he was under pressure.
I don’t have to send messages to the players, but he has to be better and more stable, he untied D.Motiejūns, how to win such a match? We need to play better in individual duels, I think we defended well against M. James, we left our opponents with only 69 points.
The main fault of L.Birutis is that he is too sensitive to mistakes, he started the game badly and then did not recover, it was not the first time, we tried to play low five to widen the field, you should never point the finger at one player but he was bad, very bad. However, tomorrow is a new day.
– What is the situation of A. Butkevičius?
– Bad situation, he twisted his ankle, looks bad, very bad.
2024-04-05 06:45:33