How could the match have turned out like this?
Frankly, I have no explanation. We started outplaying, shooting fast, retreating less and letting them gain confidence… Afterwards we did stupid things that cost us dearly in defence. It’s inexplicable. I had never experienced a scenario like that before.
Strahinja Gavrilovic in particular gained confidence and hurt you a lot…
Yes, they gain confidence, they take shots they didn’t take at the start. Above all, we put them back in a kind of match that they like when we had controlled the tempo until the 30-35th minute by making long attacks and retreating well. I think the problem comes from the attack: we started shooting quickly. So we gave them the opportunity to run, they took more rhythmic shots, they played on all-court instead of playing on half-court, where they were in difficulty. The gaps are bigger, it’s hard to fill them, and Gavrilovic puts important shots. Here is.
And what is the reason for these faster shots taken in attack when at +24 (33-57, 27th), you were supposed to have killed the match?
We had him in hand and normally we had killed him. I do not know. I took two time-outs to remind everyone of this, to reassure everyone, to say that we had to manage…
Although it turns out badly, you keep 12 points ahead with only three minutes left!
We were still largely in a position to win, even one minute from the end. But we started losing balls, making bad choices. On the way out, we watched the Saint-Chamond match, which lost by 2 points when they were leading 13 to 5 minutes from the end (84-86, against Évreux, Wednesday January 18); we said to ourselves “how is it possible?! “, but we do exactly the same thing…
It’s inexplicable. I had never experienced a scenario like this before”
It’s probably not the right time to talk about it, but can you rely on your first half hour for the rest?
The locker room took a hit on the head, it takes time to digest but time we don’t have. So we have a day, a day and a half to digest [le SRB reprenait dimanche, NDLR] then we’ll have to get up. First, analyze why we lose it and why this end-of-game management. To learn. Second, capitalize on what has been good, on what we have done well to maintain confidence and move forward.
The challenge is there: get over it, and quickly?
