At the end of the match against EA7 Emporio Armani Milano, valid for the 22nd day of the LBA, these were the words of coach Luca Banchi: “I think it’s right to congratulate both teams on a very hard-fought and vibrant match. Milan gave evidence of the moment they are going through, despite the absence of Shields they arrived in Bologna playing a match of great consistency and excellent preparation. We are two teams conditioned by the moment we are experiencing and by the effort we are both trying to make to reach the Euroleague post-season. These championship matches deserve more time in terms of preparation and above all physical recovery for the protagonists on the pitch, I believe that in these terms we must read those too many errors that we produced in our third period and those 8 turnovers caused the game to expire quality of our basketball which for the first 20 minutes and then in the final quarter were excellent considering the type of opponent we had in front of us and their aggression on the pitch. We held on to our defense, we were continuous, that continuity that we were demanding even after the searing defeat in Piraeus. Tonight we responded collectively, an excellent team performance with 11 players lined up, 10 on the scoresheet, 5 in double figures and one with 8 points, with a good quality of shots constructed as evidence of the 50% from the arc that playing against a team like Milan becomes decisive because the spaces to operate are minimal and it is essential to move the ball with a good selection of conclusions. We have a very tough month of March ahead of us, not least the month of April, we hope to have a month of May and June. We carry on day by day and try to get the best, squeeze as much as possible from this group but it is obvious that a season of this type involves declines in terms of performance and condition, a situation that everyone is experiencing at different times, no one is immune and the history of the Euroleague tells it, just look at the last 3 years with this format and see how peaks exist within the same matches.”
On Belinelli: “We are talking about a player who has such experience that I believe he has an innate flair for these matches. They are in some ways the simplest to prepare, but then they are difficult to play. People like him have really been through a lot, he’s a competitive guy. He accepted every type of duel when his opponents tried to play in a particularly physical way, or when they tried to challenge him 1-on-1 both front and back to the basket, going beyond the recognizable limits. At these levels you simply have to judge them by the experience they have and the ability they have to recognize moments in a race. In terms of consistency and precision, I believe that today he played a very high profile match, transmitting confidence to his teammates, regardless of whether on other occasions he started in the quintet or as today from the bench.”
On the starting quintet: “There was a desire to look for this type of rotation, which I think paid good dividends in the first 10/15 minutes. We then had a moment of decline at the end of Q2, we gave the sensation of losing a little bit of rhythm in attack. If there is one note to make it is that many of those 8 turnovers were a bit trivial, not necessarily all produced by Milan’s aggressiveness. That would have allowed us to keep Milan even further at a distance, with the 3-point shot they have and with the moment they are experiencing where there are players who raise their hands and score from any distance, some coming off loose balls, as evidence of the level of confidence they are experiencing and otherwise the 7 consecutive victories in the championship and this moment in the Euroleague which makes them very possible candidates for the post-season would not have been explained.”
On the positive rebound difference: “Their big men have an atypical game that often leads them to play far from the 3-point arc, this also involved our guards in their rebounding work. It was vital data to allow us to materialize the work and defensive sacrifice we have made. I don’t think that despite the absence of Shields they have lost their dangerousness, they have offered quintets that are very difficult to contain, playing with 3 creators at the same time, players all capable of beating their opponent 1 on 1, of using the pick and roll, always long ready to alternate the internal and external game and quintets with Ricci as 3. We always responded in a credible manner to each type of quintet and we did an excellent job in rebounding.”