Mannion, LeDay and Shields effectively attacked the switches to clinch a bounce-back win
Milan executed its offensive plan to perfection to down Zalgiris
Article
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 26 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Bouncing back from a blowout defeat is anything but easy in basketball. Doing so just 48 hours after losing 87-70 away at FC Bayern Munich is even harder. But recovering from that loss with a victory at a packed Zalgirio Arena takes more than talent.
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan showed character in Lithuania and executed its offensive plan to perfection to defeat Zalgiris on the road. The Italian side netted 89 points against a defense that was the stingiest in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague with an average of just 78.0 points conceded per game heading into Thursday’s evening clash.
Ettore Messina put together a strategy to unlock Zalgiris’s defense and his players followed it to the letter. Three of them stood out, with Zach LeDay netting 26 points, Niccolo Mannion scoring a career-high 21 and Shavon Shields recording 17.
“I think that we attacked fairly well the switches either with the perimeter drives of Mannion or Shavon and with the post-up of Zach,” Messina told EuroLeague TV after the game. “Kudos to all my players for coming here after a poor performance in Munich 48 hours ago. It shows that this group has character and hopefully we can build on that.”
Game Videos
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The visitors led for most of the game, but Zalgiris fought back and took a 73-71 edge halfway in the last quarter. Messina’s players didn’t flinch. They remained focused on the game plan by protecting the boards on one end and attacking the switches on the other despite the deafening noise at Zalgirio Arena and clinched a hard-fought win.
“When they got the 2-point lead, we did two very important things,” Messina said in the post-game press conference. “On the very few misses that they had shooting from outside, we always got the defensive rebound. We never allowed them to have a second shot and that limited the damage. Offensively, we attacked the switch well with the penetration, especially of Mannion, and the post-up with Zach. The team was mentally very focused and strong in obviously a very difficult environment.”
Having improved its record to 14-12, Milan remained in the playoff zone despite the important absences of Nikola Mirotic, Fabien Causeur and Josh Nebo. And in Kaunas, the Italian side showed that heart and strategy could lead you to a triumph against all odds.