After the loss against Real, he called his players tourists in Madrid. After blowing up a 19 point lead in Villeurbanne, he told his team reminded him of a mini-basket squad in the second half. Ergin Ataman saw some progress despite a fourth consecutive loss in a row at Mediolanum Forum, but he didn't hesitate to criticize his stars.
| Player of the Game | |
|
EFF
15
|
| Kyle Hines | |
| Points | 8 |
| Accuracy | 2-6 |
| Rebounds | 6 |
| Assists | 3 |
Anadolu Efes Istanbul surprised AX Armani Exchange by starting the game with a big lineup, including Filip Petrusev, Chris Singleton, and Adrien Moerman.
It helped them to build a 9 point lead in the second quarter (32-23). But after an emotional start of the game, AX Armani turned things around just before half-time and won the game 75-71.
"We started the game with a different strategy with three bigs because Milan is in very good shape," Ataman said in the press conference. "We tried to disturb their system. We were successful in the beginning, but we started to miss open shots in the offense."
"We created open shots in the pick-and-roll situations for Micic, Singleton, but we missed them.
In the last 3-4 minutes of the second quarter, we had to change things, and we came back with our regular roster with three guards, and then we had problems in defense. We let them finish the first half up by 6 points.
In the second half, we fought and came back to the game. Defensively, I believe tonight we made a good game. But offensively, especially with our three guards, Micic, Larkin, and Beaubois, we made only 2 of 10 three-pointers.
I told them in the locker room that our offensive system, especially with Micic shooting the stepbacks from 8 meters, was unacceptable in the last quarter. Undisciplined basketball is unacceptable.
I talked with him also in the locker room. This is not the correct basketball to try to resolve everything with dribble and stepbacks from 9 meters. It's a big damage for our team.
I also criticized Singleton, who played 27 minutes and didn't have a single rebound. These were the main problems we need to resolve," Ataman continued in a detailed comment.
Starting the season with 0-4, Anadolu Efes dropped to the bottom of the standings with Zalgiris Kaunas and FC Bayern Munich.
"We made progress defensively, but for our system, Krunoslav Simon is very important. We miss him too much. He's our key player in offense, who can score in the pick-and-roll. Like Shields did in Milan," Ataman concluded.
