By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Tied at 1-1, AX Armani Exchange Milan and Anadolu Efes will meet each other in Istanbul on Tuesday and Thursday.
The Italian side will miss Malcolm Delaney, Nicolo Melli, Trey Kell, and Konstantinos Mitoglou in Game 3 and Game 4 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Quarterfinals best-of-five series. However, Sergio Rodriguez made the trip to Turkey alongside the remaining available teammates despite spraining his left ankle in Game 2 last Thursday.
“Our situation is well known. As far as injured players, we can only hope to extract some minutes from Sergio Rodriguez,” noted experienced tactician Ettore Messina, “Other than that, we’ll try to control the rebounds and their great shooters, well aware that this game is realistically an extremely difficult one.”
“For us it is an opportunity to take advantage of the series, even if we know how difficult the series is going to be, especially considering the many players we are missing,” added Kyle Hines, “I think the important thing is to keep fighting, to make sure we are going to be the most aggressive team, more focused, and to play every possession in the best possible way.”
The Italian side driving through the injury crisis enjoyed Luigi Datome returning to action at the domestic level during the weekend. He was ruled out of Game 1 and Game 2 opposite Efes. The 2017 EuroLeague champion underwent surgery on his left knee in early April.
“We know it will be a very difficult game, but we hope to recover the physical and mental energy to fight exactly as we did in Game 2,” said the Italian forward, a former player of the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons, “We are aware of the many heavy absences that we have, but in this type of games everyone will be ready to do everything we can to overcome the difficulties.”
As for the defending EuroLeague champions, they stole the home-court advantage in Game 1 and dropped Game 2.
“Our opponents are missing key players but Ettore Messina is a basketball genius,” mentioned play-caller Ergin Ataman, “We have left our mark the last three years. We have succeeded together and will succeed again. We will be the champions.”
“We earned the home-court advantage in Game 1. Milan, a very good team, made minor adjustments and won Game 2,” added Shane Larkin, “We must focus on defense and take advantage of playing at home with the support of our fans.”
Photo Credit: EuroLeagueBasketball.net