From the press room of the Segafredo Arena, the coach’s words Luca Banchi after Game 2 of the playoff finals which saw the Vnere win and bring the series to 1-1. “We repeated a very solid match from a defensive point of view, managing to stop their talent and the solid fluidity of their game. The effort made in rebounding to fill the physical gaps was also significant tonight. And I believe it was decisive when at -13 in the second fourth we continued to believe in the possibility of reversing the inertia of the match and we did it despite having one of the best teams in Europe in front of us, we did so by imposing aggression, and we will have to approach the next match with this personality.”
Mickey? He put his qualities to use to try to guarantee consistency. There are details to take care of, in light of what emerged in Race 1 I believe it was necessary to also have this possibility in our arsenal and he was able to respond admirably. Lanyard? He had a good impact in these two matches, he is a player whose qualities we have been able to appreciate which in certain situations can make him a protagonist. But we know that this is only the first episode of this playoff, I would avoid going into individual performances. Because it is as a team that we must stand up to Milan, each of them must put in that small step, effort that we need to keep the attention of our game high. These are absolutely tough matches, a common effort is needed.
Their systematic changes often pushed us to look for internal play even in Game 1 and perhaps it wasn’t profitable. Perhaps the final result gave a distorted vision. You know how it works when you win and lose. Different defensive approach? In fact they had scored 68 points, tonight 64…. We did better. Keeping a team like Milan at these regimes is symptomatic of an important effort. Maybe in everyone’s eyes there are the great ballistic performances of Napier and Shields, but if we had been more careful in that last minute of Game 1, we would probably be talking about two very close matches from a defensive point of view. Allow me to say.”
