Ettore Messina: I hope that the win would bring some confidence

The press conference after the game did not bring any sensations but cleared out several important questions.

CSKA head coach Ettore Messina:

- Mentally it was a very difficult game for us. We had a lot of pressure on the players. It might look strange but we won the game in the first half. We were nervous, Unicaja was playing well. But we had the patience to keep on playing and to wait for some of the Unicaja players to get tired. In the second half we increased our level of defense. We had the rebound and we had a good team passing. When the team relaxed it started to play excellent. The most important thing in that moment was that the danger for Unicaja defense was coming from almost all of the players not from the only one. I hope that the win would bring some confidence and more faith. I would like to thank the fans because we played in a great atmosphere and because of their patience to wait for the team to start playing.

Why did not you let Shabalkin or Zavoruev to step on the court when CSKA advantage came to 20 points?

- In this situation with two defeats in the group the point difference can be very important by the end of the regular part of the Euroleague. And I prefer not to put the responsibility on the shoulders of the young players.

After the win, can you say that the reconstruction of the team is almost finished and CSKA is ready to play on the highest level?

- I do not know. Usually a big win like this helps the team to improve. But on Saturday we go to Kazan to play against a tough rival in a tough place. If we have another good game, probably the team would keep on growing up. Surely now CSKA seems to have a great potential. If one would examine our games in the Euroleague, he would learn that we are improving. We must respect our work and be quiet. I don’t want to say that the work is finished.


Unicaja head coach Sergio Scariolo:

- The game had two different faces. In the first half we executed our game plan correctly, we played aggressive had a good defense, we moved the ball. The second half was terrible. It looked like our energy has finished or were switching off minute by minute. We did not respond when CSKA lifted their aggressiveness. We did not just did not penetrate, we play neither more aggressive to the basket nor in the low post.

What do you think about Marcus Brown play? He was the key player for CSKA last year but this time he did not show his best. Do you think that the explanation is the fact that the game was in Moscow?

- This is not a question for me. I do not like to personalize my analyses after the game. Everybody had an excellent game in the first half and all the team played bad in the second half.

Did you expect that CSKA would be more aggressive in the defense after the halftime break?

- Yes. We were expecting that, we said in the locker room that it is going to happen. But we responded in the worst way: not being aggressive back and playing every time more on the perimeter. We did not have much danger to give them inside. When the team plays away from the basket and the other team pushes away it is normal to have turnovers and poor shooting performance. Our sculls were visible. But we have the same players in the first and in the second half.