Cremona –
Coach Luca Banchi spoke in a press conference after the game with Cremona: “When you have the privilege of being part of competitions of a certain type, an important effort is always required. There are days when you are inspired and there are also days like these, in the history and DNA of a team days like these carve the character of those who have the will to compete. Cremona was fresh and light, we struggled to find a reference to ride: tonight in terms of energy we saw a lively and responsive Cremona, us honestly always chasing. We lost contact in the final part of the second period. This is a condition that will accompany us throughout the season and that we will have to know how to manage: when you play at this level you cannot beat games but you have to be aware that you need discipline and personality. After accumulating an imprinted disadvantage, we came back to have in our hands the -5 possession with Cacok, a possession that would have given another flavor to the final minutes, then on the other side we conceded a basket with a foul. Credit to Cremona who played with consistency and continuity, as is in their characteristics given the first five games: we had identified the danger of facing this kind of team. There was no quarter in which we managed to hold them below a minimum standard of accomplishment. There will still be days like these, with little time to prepare challenges and recover energy. They always managed to create advantages in 1vs1s and two-way plays, Cremona’s longs opened the court well forcing us to cover more space. We were not able, except in short stretches of the game, to limit the potential and effectiveness of our opponents. We had to be good at producing consistent defense regardless of changing situations, with longs marking the smalls and vice versa. It happened to both us and them but the level of energy and competitiveness was different. We lacked in aggressiveness, a characteristic in our ropes.We are at the beginning of our journey, with exciting victories and defeats like this one that must give us insights for the future.”
Percentages? “It would be reductive to think only about that. However, Cremona was good at slowing down the flow of our game, the ball did not circulate with adequate fluidity. We still built open shots without scoring them: that’s an indication of readiness and lucidity. We cash in this defeat, we make an analysis on the numbers but we cannot think that it would have been enough to shoot better to make a different game. There are various components to analyze with, nights like this there will be more.”
