By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos coach Rick Pitino analyzed the main cause of Olimpia Milano scoring 14 triples (out of 30 attempts) against his squad in the away loss for Round 18 of the EuroLeague regular season. The Italian team swept the “Greens” since they had also won in the first-leg match.
“In the last two games against Milano, we gave up 16 3-pointers 14 3-pointers. Against AEK, we gave up 18 3-pointers. Now, it’s not the defense on the 3-pointer that is causing most of these problems,” Pitino said in the post-game presser. “Look, they made three very lucky shots from the 3-point line with one second on the clock. I’m not counting those. What’s giving up the three is getting beaten 1-on-1 constantly on the dribble. Then you are forced to rotate and you give up the three. What’s killing us is our 1-on-1 ball containment. We have cured our rebound woes, which was pretty bad, and now we have to cure our 1-on-1 woes.”
Despite the 96 points that Milano finished the game with, Pitino appeared pleased with the amount of effort his player put on the court.
“Olimpia Milano needed this game, we needed this game. But, we beat CSKA, which was big and we lost to a team that played really well. We gave a great effort tonight, we had great enthusiasm. But they were the better offensive team,” Pitino mentioned.