By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
After starting his EuroLeague scoreless in the away defeat against Virtus Bologna, Yago dos Santos had an impressive showing for Crvena Zvezda once he stepped onto the court of the Stark Arena, ending his first Belgrade derby with 11 points and 5 assists while shooting 3/7 from three.
Despite his effective contribution, the new Serbian team’s head coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos decided to bench him with 7:30 minutes left in the game for Milos Teodosic, when the red-and-white side was leading by 9 points (68-59), brought back inside with 1:16 to go in the fourth.
Entering the court once again when Crvena Zvezda was trailing by three points (83-80), he was benched only nine seconds later, coming back for a very small stint in the last minute of the game. He finally ended his game with a +/- of +11 points, the second-highest within his team behind Luka Mitrovic (+19).
Coaching the 24-year-old playmaker as head coach of the Brazilian national team from 2017-21, Aza Petrovic commented on the decision to bench the former ratiopharm Ulm guard on X. “There are a thousand ways to analyze every match. So was yesterday’s Partizan-Zvezda derby. One of those ways is the fact that Yago [dos Santos]went out when his team was leading by 9 at 7:30 minutes before the end and returned to the field with 1:16 to the end when his team was losing by 3 points”, he criticized.
PHOTO CREDIT: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague