By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olimpia Milano managed to tie the Euroleague quarterfinal series against Anadolu Efes with a win in Game 2, however, the team lost two players – Malcolm Delaney, Sergio Rodriguez – to injuries while they also had a few sidelined beforehand.
With that in mind, coach Messina made a rather pessimistic statement.
“You could see Coach Ataman correctly smiling, he was not even upset. He knows that the series is almost over. We are probably playing without four or five players in the next games. We just want to enjoy today, and then think about the next game,” he said and later echoed those words satin it will be an extremely hard play on the road without Delaney, Rodriguez, and Nicolo Melli.
“The series is over because we can’t play without Delaney, Rodriguez and Melli. We need a miracle, which happens sometimes, but realistically they are super favorites. We will prepare and go to Istanbul to give everything, but we must be realistic. We certainly don’t give up, but I don’t want the kids to feel burdened with special responsibilities,” he noted.
That said, he was proud of what his team accomplished right now amidst all of the troubles.
“I am extremely proud of what the players did. We were losing people with injuries every two minutes. It is becoming almost ridiculous, because I don’t know what to say. I have never seen a series of injuries like this, but they played with great pride. Of course, ‘Chacho’ [Sergio Rodriguez] and Shavon [Shields] made fantastic plays for 40 minutes and it has been a tremendous win. I want to thank the fans. The fans have been great. They created a great atmosphere that helped us a lot to win this game.”