“Sometimes basketball is not too complicated for a coach. Just give the ball to talented players. » Ettore Messina speaks here implicitly of the two assassins of ASVEL. The untenable Billy Barron and the brilliant Kévin Pangos. The first, author of a 4/4 behind the arc, first gave the first assault, before the Canadian-Slovenian rear, at 0/8 on shots until then, imitated him to validate definitively the victory of the Transalpines (69-62). “We want to force him to drive, we change on the screens and above all we don’t want him to shoot 3 points. And even if it’s a difficult shot, we watch him do it. We repeated it three times during the match.souffle TJ Parker, the Villeurbannais coach, inevitably disappointed to have come so close to a first success in the EuroLeague. “It hurts because my players have given themselves. » Before these two long distance arrows, ASVEL had come back (62-61) and seemed to hold the match. “This kind of match changes when you realize that even if you miss in attack, you don’t pay too much because you are solid in defense and you can win”resumes, for his part, the Italian technician, quadruple winner of the event.
Irreproachable in defensive investment, the Villeurbannais have put a lot of heart. A lot of desire and enthusiasm. A bit of what the Villeurbannais lacked last season to do better than a last place in the EuroLeague (8 wins – 20 losses). “These are small details, small details”repeats Yves Pons, with his hoarse voice, in the corridors of the Astroballe. “And we can quickly correct them. »
“They were tougher, we backed down”
This lack of collective experience and automatisms, the Villeurbannais compensated for it with an enormous heart. All poured liters of sweat on the ground : from rookie Antony Polite to David Lighty, the symbol of the Astroballe. Yves Pons, with his immense gadget on his arm, has made “Very, very big efforts but he needs to be more present on these little things because he has exceptional athletic qualities”, notes TJ Parker. Amine Noua was very solid defensively, like this counter in extremis on Kyle Hines after several offensive rebounds. Defensively, there is something to celebrate and ASVEL has shown great promise on this side.
Offensively, however, the score is much less pleasing. The Villeurbannais, boosted for the start of their European campaign, first recited a well-oiled basketball and close to perfection, let’s say it (20-5, 7 ‘). Even the absence of a count on the scoreboard did not disturb them – it was Pierre Salzmann-Crochet, the announcer, who announced the score in English on each basket. The Astroballe, nicely adorned with a banner “The EuroLeague opens, it’s up to us to conquer it”, began to dream. But the Milanese have gradually put an end to the meeting and changed gear.
“They were tougher, we backed off. We have to learn to play together”notes, lucid, Youssoupha Fall, victim of a small dislocation in the right ring finger on an offensive foul at the start of the 4th quarter. Nando De Colo, yet so incisive in the first half and author of 16 points, scored only two free throws after returning from the locker room. With 18 points in the second half and especially 17 lost balls, the Villeurbannais did not make it easy. “We froze the ball a little more”regrets TJ Parker, deprived of Joffrey Lauvergne (sick), captain Charles Kahudi and Parker Jackson-Cartwright, affected in the adductors and absent between two and three weeks. “And even putting 62 points, you can win by making stops and putting one or two more baskets. But we struggled physically. » Those famous little details…
In Villeurbanne,
par
October 6, 2022 at 10:46 am
